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Fire Nov 11, 2023
| Photo courtesy of Jason Lawrence/Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY 2.0)
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Firefighters from 26 companies worked Saturday morning to contain and extinguish a major emergency fire that started in one downtown Los Angeles pallet yard, spread to another and consumed a fire engine that became stuck in its path.
At 2:33 a.m., Stewart reported pallets in both yards were mostly consumed by the flames and firefighters would use bulldozers to move debris and put out hot spots.
The fire was first reported at 12:22 a.m. in the 1700 block of East 14th Street, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Margaret Stewart.
The first pallet yard was 40,000-square-feet and was fully involved with flames that engulfed multiple trailers, Stewart said.
The flames spread to a second pallet yard of similar size between Lawrence and Elwood streets, she said.
“Firefighters have successfully defended three exposed commercial buildings from fire extension,” Stewart said.
The Department of Water and Power assisted the fire department by boosting water pressure in the downtown area for the high volume needed, Stewart said. The agency also dealt with the cross arm of energized high tension wire that fell on 14th Street
The first pallet yard was under the Santa Monica (10) Freeway so the California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert at 1:19 a.m. shutting down the freeway in both eastbound and westbound directions at Alameda Street and is diverting eastbound traffic at Alameda Street and westbound at Santa Fe Avenue.
Caltrans engineers were on scene to assess damage to the freeway and determine whether it was safe to reopen, Stewart said. Mop up was expected to continue through the morning.
Fire Engine 17 was the first on the scene and became stuck under the freeway overpass, according to a news videographer at the scene. It burned in the blaze.
