LOS ANGELES (KTLA 5) – Three firefighters were hurt while battling a massive fire at a commercial building in Boyle Heights that sent plumes of heavy smoke over the area on Wednesday afternoon.
The blaze started just before 1 p.m. in the 80-by-100-foot one-story building on 2881 E. Pico Blvd., the Los Angeles Fire Department said. A clothing warehouse called Passion Imports is listed under that address.
Some 150 firefighters were deployed to the site and managed to extinguish the flames in about two hours, LAFD spokesman Erik Scott said.
He said at some point, the roof partially collapsed. While it was initially reported that four were hurt, the Fire Department later clarified that one firefighter fell through the burning roof and sustained “painful though non-life threatening burn injury,” and that two others who rescued him were burned less severely.
“He immediately tried to lift himself from peril, and was quickly assisted in doing so by his colleagues,” a news release from the Fire Department said.
They were all taken to the hospital, the first firefighter in critical condition and the other two in fair condition, Scott said. No other injuries were reported.
