Fire Shuts Down Portions of L.A. Fashion District
An early morning fire on June 5 destroyed the contents of several businesses located in the 1000 block of South Los Angeles Street in the heart of the Los Angeles Fashion District.
Nobody was injured in the fire, which took 241 firefighters close to two hours to put out after arriving at 4:50 a.m., said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson d’Lisa Davies. Flames and black smoke could be seen for several blocks.
Police closed off Los Angeles Street between Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street for most of the morning. Most businesses in that block remained closed for a good portion of the day.
The two-story brick building housed several wholesale and retail apparel/bridal businesses. A Fashion District security guard patrolling the area first alerted fire officials at about 4:40 a.m. when he saw flames coming from the second story of a business at 1034 S. Los Angeles St., said Kent Smith, executive director of the Fashion District Business Improvement District.
“It could have been a lot worse. The quick response prevented the fire from spreading to neighboring businesses. We have to give credit to [Los Angeles Councilmember] Jan Perry for helping us push through new storm drains for that area. There were 9,000 gallons per minute being pushed through there, and the drains helped prevent flooding.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department’s arson team was investigating the cause of the fire. —Robert McAllister
