Los Angeles County Fire Department crews put out a grass fire in Lancaster after getting a report that someone was burning papers, which reportedly turned out to be a closed pharmacy’s medical records.
The call came in around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday reporting someone was burning papers in the area of 50th Street West and Avenue J-8, according to a lieutenant at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lancaster Station.
No suspect was there when firefighters arrived to put the blaze out, the lieutenant said, but according to a videographer who recorded images at the location, more than 100 boxes, some containing medical records with identifiable personal information from the now-shuttered Lancaster Pharmacy on Avenue I, had been torched.
Video shows piles of boxes, some scorched, with a sea of documents strewn about an open field.
The lieutenant was unable to immediately confirm that personal medical information was among the burnt records.