LOS ANGELES (AP) – Five people were injured, two critically, and a pet cat was killed when flames ripped through a hillside home and then spread to a neighboring house early Thursday in Los Angeles, authorities said.
One house was the home of Swedish reality TV star Gunilla Persson, who escaped along with her elderly mother, Iris, and daughter, Erika, 14.
Persson, who appears in “Svenska Hollywoodfruar,” or “Swedish Hollywood Wives,” told The Associated Press they were fortunate and that possessions can be replaced but lives cannot. Firefighters could not resuscitate one of her cats.
Nearly 90 firefighters responded when the blaze erupted shortly after 2 a.m. in a Pacific Palisades neighborhood with winding roads and houses on compact lots, Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said.
Crews found a couple and their two teenage daughters suffering from smoke inhalation, Scott said.