Los Angeles, California: Fire Tears Through Alameda Street Flooring Building Near Vernon, 120 Firefighters Respond

Updated 21:37 UTC, November 10: The fire flared up again on Tuesday and kept crews at 5505 S. Alameda St. for a second day. The Los Angeles Fire Department said the flare-up was reported at about 4 a.m. inside a complex of buildings that are intertwined internally, and firefighters who had been monitoring the site went back to work with large diameter hose lines. Power poles burned and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was called in. About 100 LAFD personnel were still on scene on Tuesday morning for fire suppression and debris clearing, according to the department. No injuries were reported and no additional structures burned on Tuesday. Assistant Chief Carlos Calvillo, the incident commander, briefed reporters at 55th Street and Alameda. Traffic restrictions remain in place from East 50th Street in the north to Slauson Avenue in the south, and from Bandera Street in the west to Alameda Street in the east, according to LAFD spokeswoman Lyndsey Lantz. The updated reports also raised air quality concerns around the site. The cause of the original Monday fire remains under investigation.

A major fire tore through a commercial building in the Central-Alameda neighborhood of Los Angeles, next to the city of Vernon, early on Monday, November 9, and more than 120 firefighters from two departments spent about six hours bringing it under control.

The fire was reported at 1:02 a.m. at 5505 S. Alameda St., according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Middleton. The first arriving unit found a commercial building measuring 100 feet by 100 feet fully engulfed in flames.

A heavy fire load inside

The property operated as a flooring company, LAFD Captain Branden Silverman told FOX 11 at the scene. Silverman described a large amount of combustible material piled high inside the building, a condition firefighters call a heavy fire load, which helps a fire grow fast and burn hot.

Crews also found propane tanks at the property. Firefighters were able to keep the tanks safe while they worked, according to the FOX 11 report from the scene.

Fire spreads and a roof comes down

The fire spread beyond the first building and into other structures on the property. Firefighters worked defensively at the original building, pouring water from outside, while other crews went into an adjacent structure to attack the flames there and stop the fire from spreading further.

Incident reports from the scene said the fire caused a roof collapse at the property. Streets near the site were closed while crews worked, and video from the scene showed heavy flames and smoke over the industrial blocks along Alameda Street.

The response grew into a major emergency, with more than 120 firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department working at the scene. The fire was declared a knockdown at around 7 a.m., about six hours after the first report.

Cause still unknown

The cause of the fire remains unknown, and investigators had not announced what started it by Monday morning. Authorities had not provided a confirmed estimate of the damage or a count of the businesses affected. It was also unclear how many nearby customers may have lost power during the fire.

Alameda Street is a heavily industrial corridor through Central-Alameda and Vernon, lined with warehouses, flooring and building supply businesses and trucking yards. Fires in buildings stocked with flooring and other combustible stock can burn for hours, and Monday's fire was the largest emergency response in the corridor in recent weeks.