A three-alarm fire gutted a shuttered restaurant in a busy Lakewood intersection Monday and one firefighter was injured.
The fire was first reported at 11:17 p.m. Sunday in the 5800 block of Lakewood Boulevard at South Street, Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Aaron Katon told City News Service.
Arriving firefighters found the vacant restaurant with heavy smoke and fire showing, Katon said.
“Due to an inability to access the inside, and heavy fire through the roof, the firefighters went into defensive mode,” Katon said. That means they took up positions around the building to surround and drown the fire from outside.
At 11:33 p.m., a second alarm response was called to bring additional firefighters to the scene and a third alarm response was requested at 12:21 a.m. Monday, he said.
At 2:23 a.m., the firefighters were “making good progress,” Katon said. Some of the units were released as the fire became less aggressive.
Video from the scene showed heavy flames and smoke coming from the building as it was destroyed while water was poured onto the burning remnants. The video also showed one firefighter sitting inside an ambulance while paramedics tended to him.
The firefighter was taken in the ambulance to a hospital with stable vital signs and he was expected to make a full recovery, Katon said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation, he said.
The sign outside the restaurant read: “Pancho’s Heritage,” and it was a buffet that served Mexican and American food, according to Google.