Firefighters from 26 companies worked Saturday to contain and extinguish a major emergency fire that started in a downtown pallet yard, spread to another, forced closing of a major freeway and consumed a fire engine stuck in its path.
The fire was reported at 12:22 a.m. in the 1700 block of East 14th Street, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Margaret Stewart.
The first pallet yard was 40,000-square-feet and was fully involved with flames that engulfed multiple trailers, Stewart said. The flames spread to a second pallet yard of similar size between Lawrence and Elwood streets, she said.
At 2:33 a.m., Stewart reported that pallets in both yards were mostly consumed by the flames and firefighters would use bulldozers to move debris and put out hot spots.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power assisted by boosting water pressure in the area for the high volume needed, Stewart said. The agency also dealt with a cross arm of energized high tension wire that fell on 14th Street.
Stewart said firefighters “successfully defended three exposed commercial buildings from fire extension.”
The first pallet yard was located under the Santa Monica (10) Freeway, so the California Highway Patrol issued a Sigalert at 1:19 a.m. shutting down the freeway in both directions and diverting eastbound traffic at Alameda Street and westbound traffic at Santa Fe Avenue.
At 10:13 a.m. the Sigalert was extended for an unknown duration — “possibly 24 hours,” according to the CHP. Caltrans engineers were on scene to assess damage to the freeway and determine whether it was safe to reopen, Stewart said.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore reported at about 12:30 p.m. that city officials were working with Caltrans and the CHP in the structural assessment of the Santa Monica Freeway at Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue.
“Planning has already begun on mitigating the impact of an extended closure of the damaged portion (of the freeway),” Moore posted on X.