Firefighters needed nearly 12 hours Friday to extinguish a massive three-alarm blaze that destroyed a warehouse in Commerce, spewing thick black smoke visible for miles.
The blaze erupted about 3:40 a.m. in the 6500 block of Flotilla Street, near Garfield Avenue, with a knockdown declared at 3:29 p.m., the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported.
Responding firefighters encountered flames chewing through the 100,000-square-foot-plus structure.
The resulting plume of black smoke could be seen for miles, and the inferno raging in the structure lit up the pre-dawn sky.
Just before 10 a.m., Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who was at the scene of the fire, tweeted that the fire continued to burn and that “the fumes … are noxious.”
“LACoFD has told local schools that students should remain indoors during recess as fire continues to burn at warehouse,” Hahn tweeted.
LACFD Capt. Sheila Kelliher told Fox11 at the scene that the building where the fire originated housed a plastic bench supplier. Kelliher said the fire started near the loading dock area, but the cause was under investigation.
“Our units have done a great job getting a handle on this,” Kelliher said shortly after 7 a.m. “It is a stubborn fire … there are a lot of products in there, plastics and whatnot, so they get hot and they burn heavy; so, they’re doing a great job. You can see by the smoke that we’re close to knockdown.”
Arriving firefighters found that the roof of the structure had quickly collapsed as flames ripped through the building, forcing the firefighters into a defensive posture.
Firefighters poured water onto the flames from ladders raised outside the structure.
The flames were contained to the single sprawling structure, not spreading to any other buildings.
No injuries were reported.