Fire Hits Garment Building for Third Time
For the third time in little more than a month, a fire broke out in a large downtown Los Angeles garment building that used to be the largest department store west of Chicago.
Some 58 firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department were called to 830 S. Hill St. at 10 a.m. on Nov. 19. They found a blaze that started in a bin filled with discarded fabric and hangers in a third-floor hallway. The mammoth building houses several sewing contractors.
Sprinklers helped extinguish most of the fire, which was knocked down at 10:23 a.m., said Battalion Chief Joseacute; Cronenbold. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Only a few people were evacuated from the Beaux-Art structure, which was built in 1907 as the Hamburger Department Store and bought in 1923 by the May Co.
The building’s owner, Shawn Afshani, was talking to firefighters outside the more than 1 million-square-foot structure. He said he didn’t know what caused the blaze, the third in almost five weeks.
The first blaze broke out Oct. 15 in a pile of rags on the ninth floor of the building. On Oct. 20, a fire broke out in another pile of rags on the sixth floor of 827 S. Broadway, which is the eastside entrance to the building.Both those fires are still under investigation. —Deborah Belgum
