(L.A.) Lleny Vazquez Sanchez, 40, Died in a Hospital

Case Number: 2023-00094

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 40-year-old female of Latin American ethnicity that occurred in a hospital.

The coroner’s office has identified the woman as Lleny Vazquez Sanchez.

Manner of Death: Accident

Cause of Death: Sequelae of Thermal Injuries and Inhalation of Products of Combustion

RIP LLENY VAZQUEZ SANCHEZ (January 29, 1982 – December 31, 2022)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Saturday at 12:14 p.m.

Ruling by the deputy medical examiner was published the first week of August, presumably after the results of tox screening came back negative for substances.

The decedent famously died in an apartment fire in Alhambra while trying to save her five children. Her husband Carlos Mendez was also injured in the fire.

Firefighters and paramedics responded at about 8:30 a.m. to the fire in the 300 block of North Electric Avenue. Neighbors say the father and a good Samaritan went into the home several times, trying to get the five kids and their mother to safety.

Mendez later said that as flames ripped through their apartment, Vazquez ran through the smoke to grab their trapped kids and handed them to him. He credits her for saving their lives.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Investigators said they’re looking into the possibility that it may have been sparked by the Christmas tree and lights inside the apartment. The LAFD said there were no working smoke alarms in the unit.

Theirs was the front unit of the six-unit apartment building on North Electric Avenue.