Updated at 5:35 p.m. June 19, 2015
A fire sparked by a cutting tool gutted a two-story apartment building being demolished in the Toluca Lake area Friday, damaging an adjacent apartment complex and sending two people, including a firefighter, to the hospital and killing one pet, authorities said.
The blaze was reported about 12:20 p.m. in the 4600 block of Riverton Avenue, Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said.
A woman in her mid-30s who jumped from the second story of the adjacent building that caught fire was assessed at the scene and declined hospital treatment.
A 36-year-old woman from across the street suffered smoke inhalation and was in stable condition when taken to a hospital and a firefighter was taken to a hospital for treatment of a “non-traumatic” injury, Stewart said.
One pet was found dead in the adjacent building, she said.
The building where the fire broke out, which was in the second day of demolition, was quickly engulfed in flames, forcing firefighters into a “defensive operation” to keep the fire from spreading, Stewart said.
It spread to at least two units of a three-story apartment building next door, however, and firefighters actively battled those flames, she said.
About 125 firefighters extinguished the flames in “just over one hour,” Stewart said. A damage estimate was not immediately available.
Several parked vehicles were damaged, at least some of them by radiant heat from the fire.
— City News Service
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