HISTORIC SOUTH CENTRAL LOS ANGELES, July 1 — Early Saturday morning, firefighters battled a blaze in a commercial building that rapidly grew in size, eventually reaching Greater Alarm status. The incident occurred on the 4100 block of South Broadway Street in the Historic South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) received the dispatch call just before 1:30 a.m. Smoke was already visible when they arrived at the two-story commercial building.
By 1:50 a.m., the fire had escalated to Greater Alarm status, with flames engulfing the roof. Firefighters had to switch to a defensive approach to combat the intense blaze.
Although the firefighters made some progress, the heavy fire posed significant challenges. Parts of the building showed visible signs of potential structural collapse, adding to the complexity of the situation, as reported by the LAFD. To aid the firefighting efforts, the RS3 robotic firefighting vehicle was prepared for deployment, enabling safe entry into the building to target specific areas.
A team of over 80 firefighters was present at the scene, as confirmed by the LAFD. They managed to extinguish the fire in one hour and 33 minutes. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
Given the magnitude of the incident, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) was called in to address the issue of high tension wires that had come down. Additionally, in accordance with protocol for fires of this size, the LAFD Arson investigators were scheduled to arrive and conduct an investigation.