High-rise apartment fire in Los Angeles injures 8 as firefighters make daring rescues
A blaze that struck a Los Angeles high-rise building at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday injured eight, including one “in grave condition,” authorities said.
The fire appeared to have engulfed part of the sixth floor of the 25-story building on Wilshire Avenue in Brentwood, KNBC reported. Firefighters were reportedly using helicopters to rescue people from the roof.
Though eyewitnesses initially reported seeing residents leaping from windows or balconies to escape the fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in an update that those witnesses were likely mistaken.
“Despite reliable eyewitnesses vividly describing one or more persons ‘jumping’ from the 6th floor, we surmise that such person/s may have appeared, disappeared (returned briefly inside) and returned to the building’s exterior in an area heavily charged with smoke, leading the eyewitnesses to believe they had jumped rather than temporarily retreated into the building,” firefighters said. “It is likely the jumper/s in question was the man later safely rescued by an LAFD firefighter atop an extended aerial ladder.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that “one man was seen clinging to the ledge of a building before a fire ladder was hoisted up to him.”
Firefighters said the ”wind-driven fire was extinguished one hour and 19 minutes after it was first reported.”
A 3-month-old baby is among the injured, according to KCBS. More than 300 firefighters were battling the blaze. Firefighters placed inflatable cushions on the ground beneath the high-rise.
“We do not encourage people to jump, but if they had, we wanted to do our very best to help them,” said Brian Humphrey, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson, KCBS reported.
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 10:20 AM.
