Firefighters are working to put out a massive fire at a building in downtown Los Angeles.
The fire was reported around 5:50 a.m. in the 1100 block of South Los Angeles Street, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
“The Incident Commander has withdrawn companies and transitioned to defensive mode (exterior-only fire attack),” the department said.
A security guard who worked a couple of buildings down told KNX News’ Jon Baird he smelled the fire around 4 a.m.
“I thought it was one of the homeless trying to stay warm or something, so I didn’t think nothing (sic) of it,” he said. “But it was just burning all morning until I saw the fire department pass by. That’s when I decided to investigate and look [around] the area and that’s when I noticed the smoke building up and it just blew up fast.”
LAFD spokesperson Nicholas Prange told L.A. Morning News one of the firefighters had noticed the fire prior to responding to it.
“We did discover this fire as what we would call a ‘still alarm’,” he said. “It was not called in by 911. One of our own firefighters stumbled across it. I'm not sure which apparatus that was, but LAFD was driving by and noticed some concerning conditions and created the structure fire alarm to our dispatch center who then filled out the assignment.”
Around 120 firefighters are working to prevent the flames from spreading to other buildings.
Around 7 a.m., LAFD said the building "is beginning to show signs of compromise, as walls begin to buckle."
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