LA Firefighters Battle Blaze in Downtown Wholesale District

On Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 0:22 AM, 18 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 7 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 2 Arson Units, 1 Urban Search and Rescue Unit, 1 Hazardous Materials Team, 1 EMS Battalion Captain, 6 Battalion Chief Officer Command Teams, 1 Division Chief Officer Command Team, 1 Rehab Air Tender, 1 Emergency Air and 137 total firefighters, all under the direction of Assistant Chief Daryl Arbuthnott, responded to a Major Emergency Structure Fire at 1238 East Olympic Boulevard in the Wholesale District.


 
Firefighters arrived to find a row of one-story commercial buildings covering 8,722 square-feet with heavy fire showing from two units. Worker's outside of the non-occupied business flagged down Firefighters and assisted access, eliminating the need of forcible entry. Additional resources were quickly called and large hose streams were deployed to attain maximum water-flow on this blaze.

The contents of this fire were highly combustible as the occupancy was a party-supplies company dealing largely in pinatas and other paper decorations. Firefighters were quickly forced into a defensive attack due to intense flames compromising the integrity of the structure, resulting in a full collapse of the roof other than the arch-trusses.

Complete extinguishment of the 90 year-old sprinklered building was obtained in one hour and 26 minutes, before anyone was injured. The cause of this early morning blaze was contributed to sparks from workers repairing rolling steel doors. The dollar loss is still being tabulated.

Submitted by Erik Scott & Matt Spence, Spokesmen
Los Angeles Fire Department