huge fire downtown Los Angeles. looks really bad pic.twitter.com/h6GuBOik2s
— Eric Politzer (@epolitzerphoto) December 8, 2014
Fire crews continued spraying down the burned-out rubble of an under-construction apartment building in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday and worked to secure the scene so a team of local and federal investigators can begin sifting through the rubble and determine if the blaze was intentionally set.
“After a thorough investigation, it will be determined if the fire was incendiary or accidental in cause,” according to Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
He stressed that the site has not been designated as a “crime scene,” but an “investigative scene.”
The Monday morning inferno that destroyed the seven-story structure also damaged three high-rise buildings and prompted hours-long freeway closures that affected thousands of commuters. The fire was so hot that it melted freeway signs, and at least 160 plate-glass windows were destroyed in a nearby city-owned building.
Crews with a private contractor used heavy equipment today to knock down scaffolding around the outside of the burned-out building, and firefighters were on standby, spraying down still-smoldering rubble and searching for possible hot spots.
“The concerns are the possibility of collapse,” David Ortiz of the LAFD told ABC7.
“There’s a lot of free-standing framework that’s still up that has not collapsed, and so the danger — or fear that the department has — is that some of that might fall on … people walking around there,” Ortiz said. “That is the reason we’ve kept it sealed off.”
Damages are expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars. But no one was injured in the blaze, which was reported at 1:20 a.m. Monday at the Da Vinci apartment complex at 906 N. Fremont Ave. The flames could be seen for miles as they consumed an entire city block and sent blazing scaffolding onto the Harbor (110) Freeway.
A stretch of the 110 Freeway and some ramps in the area had to be closed during the blaze, snarling traffic throughout the day.
LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas said more than 250 firefighters were deployed to fight the fire and keep it from spreading beyond the 1.3 million-square-foot structure, which was in the framing stage.
The cause of the blaze will be probed by a task force that includes local investigators and personnel from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Authorities have announced a hotline number — (213) 893-9850 — and urged tipsters to call in with any information relevant to the investigation
“When we see a fire this well developed … (we think) perhaps it was set,” LAFD Deputy Chief Joseph Castro said. He noted that flammable liquids are used on construction sites.
Accelerant-sniffing dogs will be deployed as part of the investigation. Arson investigators said they also plan to look at surveillance video from surrounding buildings.
According to the fire department, ATF investigators are expected to arrive Wednesday to assist with the probe of the fire’s cause.
As the wooden framing at the Da Vinci building was collapsing Monday, flames spread to a 16-story city-owned building at 221 N. Figueroa St., where three floors sustained fire damage and 14 floors had water damage, fire officials said. The building remained closed, but people were being allowed inside with an escort to retrieve personal belongings.
Three stories of the 15-story Los Angeles County Health Department building at 313 N. Figueroa St. sustained radiant heat damage, including melted blinds and broken glass, according to the LAFD. The building was open today.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power headquarters at 111 N. Hope St. also sustained building damage due to the fire. At least 160 windows, mostly on the west side of the John Ferraro Building, were cracked as a result of the heat, according to the DWP. The window panels are each about 10 feet high by four feet wide.
In one of the Figueroa Street buildings, where the city’s Department of Aging rents space, there were approximately 2,000 Christmas gift bags being stored prior to distribution to low-income senior citizens, some without families nearby. They were destroyed by water.
“It’s enough to break your heart,” department general manager Laura Trejo told The Times shortly after she returned from a visit to the site Monday evening. Department staff members had planned to begin passing out the presents this week, she said.
The gifts were part of a Secret Santa-type program called Project CARE, which matches city and Los Angeles Police Department employees with senior citizens in need, The Times reported. Presents include sweaters, socks, DVDs, lamps and food.
—City News Service