VIDEO: Over 140 firefighters battled a massive blaze which engulfed a commercial building in the Central-Alameda area of South Los Angeles early Tuesday morning. The fire was reported at 3:40 a.m. at a one-story, 21,000-square-foot commercial building in the 2700 block of South Long Beach Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Video from the scene showed heavy flames and smoke shooting from the building.
Dozens of firefighters fought the fire using large hose lines and ladders. They were forced to take a cautious position in case the building collapses, the fire department said.
“We call that a defensive battle or defensive operations, you see when those aerial ladders we call the streams coming off of that a ladder pipe,” LAFD PIO Erik Scott told CBSLA by phone.