A fire tore through the front of a home on 756 S Boyle Ave Thursday morning, killing one person and critically injuring two others, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Firefighters responded to a call at 4:24 a.m. to see the 113-year-old property overtaken by flames. According to the LAFD, the blaze at the front of the home was so intense they had to enter through the back of the property to extinguish the fire.
With a team of 54 firefighters led by Battalion Chief Michael Castillo, the LAFD extinguished the blaze in 25 minutes.
As firefighters performed a search on the property for the three residents that weren’t outside when emergency services arrived, they found two people who needed immediate medical attention and one, an elderly woman, dead on the porch of the property.
“There was some excessive storage inside the home. At this time, it’s unknown if there are smoke detectors that were working inside there,” said LAFD Captain Adam VanGerpen during a short press conference Thursday morning.
Gilbert Dorantes, a neighbor who lives on the property behind the victims’ home on Chicago St., said the glow of the bright flames woke him up in the early morning. He said he was shocked to learn that one of his neighbors died in the blaze, and has fond memories of seeing them sweep their driveways, saying hello to people passing by.
Although the family was too shaken up to speak on the record, they slowly carried out valuables from the remains of their home as the morning drew on.
Another neighbor who preferred to stay anonymous said that her elderly mother called her when the blaze erupted across the street.
“I’ve known the two sons that lived here for a long time, we went to junior high school together,” she said.
Because the fire led to a death, LAFD Arson and Counter-Terrorism Section (ACTS) are conducting an ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
No other injuries were reported to the fire department.
