A HUGE fire occurred the morning of Monday Dec. 8 in downtown Los Angeles and the nearby Westlake area, destroying an entire apartment complex under construction and temporarily shutting down the 101 and 110 freeways. The area engulfed was about the size of a city block, according to fire department officials.
Over 250 firefighters responded to initial reports of the massive blaze in the 900 block of Fremont Ave., which started around 1:20 am. No injuries were reported in any of the three buildings, including the DaVinci apartment complex, which were damaged. A video shows that the building appeared to be almost completely leveled, with concrete stairwells being the only thing left standing.
Officials were unsure if anyone was inside the two-story Westlake apartment under renovation when the fire broke out, and it took nearly two hours for 100 firefighters to knockdown the blaze. One person in the area was treated for smoke inhalation, but was not transported to a hospital.
About two-thirds of the seven-story apartment complex, which had been under construction and mostly made of wood framing, went up in flames, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph M. Terrazas. The fire also caused significant exposure to adjacent buildings on the 1.3-million square foot property.
“It looked like a bomb had just exploded,” said LAFD Capt. Rick Godinez.
Fire station three was directly across the street from the burning apartment, said Capt. Jaime Moore, less than 100 yards away.
“When they opened the doors they saw nothing but fire blowing down the streets, so they started putting their hose lines literally from the front entrance of the fire stations, right across the street to the fire,” Moore said.
A 16-story high rise on Figueroa St. had flames on three floors and sprinklers were activated on six floors when firefighters arrived. The tower experienced fire and water damage, with heat from the blaze shattering windows.
“Our firefighters were able to get in there, knockdown this fire, contain it,” Moore said. “We do have 14 of those 16 floors with some significant form of damage, either through smoke, radiant heat or water damage.”
The nearby Los Angeles County Health Services building was also exposed to the fire on three floors, but there were no active flames. Firefighters were able to cool the area down.
The bulk of the fire was put out in 90 minutes, but firefighters were continuing to deal with hot spots well into the morning, said Terrazas.
“The cause of the blaze is not yet known, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was on scene as well as an accelerant-sniffing dog to help arson investigators determine whether it was intentionally set,” said LAFD spokeswoman Katherine Main.
Battling the fires throughout the both areas was difficult for the hundreds of firefighters at the scene, due to cascading glass shards and falling debris from the construction. There were no reports of firefighter injuries.
“If you can imagine they have a large construction site that they have active fire, which is like a blow torch, but behind them they have the radiant heat that’s affecting the buildings behind…So they had shards of glass that were coming down, falling from the sky,” Moore said.
Due to the size of the fire and surrounding damages, crews closed portions of the 110 and 101 freeways as well as surface streets to better combat the flames.
Parts of the multimillion-dollar apartment project’s scaffolding collapsed and fell over a freeway wall near the 101 interchange with the 110 freeway. Firefighters used the 110 freeway to set up equipment to fight the blaze. The 101 and southbound 110 were reopened at around 4:30 am, and part of the 110 northbound was reopened after 10:00 am.
Traffic crawled to as slow as 5 mph as far south as the University of Southern California, and surrounding freeways and surface streets were backed up as Monday morning progressed.
Employees who work in the two burning high-rises were e-mailed not to report to the office, and both buildings are “not to be occupied until further notice.”
Capt. Steve Tufts oversaw a fire engine that responded to the blaze from an LAFD station in South LA. His unit helped combat radiant heat in one of the high-rises next to the burnt down DaVinci complex, which was saved by its emergency sprinkler system.
“It reminded me of the ‘80s,” he said. “When you got that bare wood. It burns. It burns good.”
The destroyed DaVinci apartment complex was part of a large project by developer Geoffrey Palmer to revitalize downtown Los Angeles, which has built a series of upscale apartments around the 101-110 interchange over the last decade. Though complaints have arisen because of the design and size, the building—and its pedestrian bridge connecting to other complexes and downtown attractions—was approved by the City Council in May.
Multimillion dollars’ worth of damage is expected, fire officials said.
(With reports from KTLA5, Los Angeles Times)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek December 10-12, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
