Youth Saves Family From Burning Home

Three people were seriously injured early Thursday when an intense fire raced through a Brentwood house, gutting the downstairs of the white Tudor-style structure before firefighters could extinguish the flames.

David Topper, 47, his wife, Alexa, 31, and their 3-year-old son, Alexander, suffered serious burns and were in critical condition at local hospitals.

Morgan Topper, David Topper’s son from a previous marriage, who was visiting for the holidays, was credited by firefighters with rescuing his stepmother and half brother by breaking open a locked sliding-glass door with a piece of lawn furniture to free them.

He was treated for smoke inhalation and cuts and released from a hospital by midmorning.

Firefighters said the blaze, which caused an estimated $400,000 damage, apparently started in the family room and spread quickly through the downstairs of the two-story home. The entire first floor was charred by the fire, which also caused damage upstairs and in the attic. Firefighters had not determined the cause of the blaze.

Shaken neighbors said David Topper was racing around his front lawn just before 7 a.m. as the fire raged inside, crying for someone to help his family.

“I was in the living room drinking coffee when I heard a man screaming,� said Blanche Bettington, 95, who lives next door. “I ran outside and saw [Topper] on the lawn. He was screaming as though he was in pain, as though someone was after him.�

Firefighters said Topper’s older son escaped from his second-story bedroom, went into the backyard and saw his stepmother and half brother collapsed unconscious on the floor, trapped behind the sliding glass door. He grabbed a piece of lawn furniture, flung it against the glass and dragged them outside, where firefighters found them when they arrived.

“The boy’s quick and decisive action may have saved their lives,� said Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

David Topper, who acquaintances report is an executive at a hospital corporation, was at Torrance Memorial Medical Center with third-degree burns over 70% of his body. He was on a respirator in the hospital’s burn center along with Alexa Topper, who has third-degree burns over 30% of her body. Alexander, suffering from severe smoke inhalation, was in the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital.

Adelaide McIntosh, who lives across the street from the Toppers, ran over to help David Topper as he came staggering out the front door.

“It was just horrible. He was badly burnt, his feet were bleeding and he was screaming and yelling, ‘My wife and kids are in there!’ � said McIntosh, 42. “But it was just too big to go back inside.� McIntosh said Topper told her that the smoke alarm woke him up and he rushed outside.

McIntosh got a wet towel and tried to wrap it around his wounds but said he did not want to sit still. “I finally got him to kneel down on the grass,� she said. “Then his older son, Morgan, came around and said his wife and kid were out, so he calmed down a little.�

The Topper family had rented the house for the last four or five months, said Kenneth Paik, who owns the property. Paik and his wife live in New Jersey, but were in town to visit their family for the holidays.

“I just hope the family is OK,� said Paik, who lived in the house about 15 years before renting it.

Times correspondents Deborah Belgum and Greg Sandoval contributed to this story.