A fire in a house in the Del Rey area of Los Angeles near Culver City Tuesday left one person dead and another hospitalized.
At 6:14 a.m., firefighters responded to a single-story residence in the 4900 block of South Sycamore Drive, according to Nicholas Prange of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Fire Captain Adam VanGerpen told KNX News’ Emily Valdez that once the fire was knocked down, the two victims were found inside.
“So one was a female in her fifties [who] was transported to a local hospital,” he said. “Second one, unfortunately, was found deceased inside.”
Information on the identity of the deceased victim was not immediately available.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Neighbors in the area told KNX News’ Emily Valdez the home had been taken over by squatters over the last few months.
One of the neighbors, Mary Shalaby, said, she’d seen people going in and out of the house at all hours of the night.
“We think there's one man who's actually selling the drugs and he's become very aggressive,” she said. “He knows we've called the cops. I would say between now and December, I must have called 9-1-1 seven or eight times.”
Mary added that her daughter had heard shouting and arguing coming form the home prior to the fire.
City Councilwoman Traci Park told KTLA that the house had been red-tagged by the city's Department of Building and Safety.
Firefighters sent to the single-story residence in the 4900 block of South Sycamore Drive at 6:14 a.m. extinguished the flames in 41 minutes, according to Nicholas Prange of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
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