Fire Rips Through Warehouse in West LA

WEST LOS ANGELES - Over 100 Los Angeles Firefighters extinguished a fire that ripped through a 150' x 300' office supply warehouse on Saturday December 3rd, 2011. The intense blaze was extinguished before it extended to nearby businesses, and no one was injured.

At 5:25 P.M. firefighters arrived to 2231 Barrington Avenue, to find fire showing from the exterior of the structure doing business as Office Depot, which was open for business. The flames quickly spread to wood siding that covered the building's windows and crept inside where mounds of ordinary Class A combustible storage, such as paper and office furniture was stacked.

Ascending ladders to the Conventional roof, firefighters cut a strategic 4' x 150' strip out of the 1x8 diagonal sheathing for vertical ventilation. Meanwhile additional fire crews aggressively advanced hose-lines inside, but were immediately met with an additional challenge of protecting an adjacent structure, a swimming pool supply store, before flames spread to the chemicals which could create noxious fumes.

A total of 106 firefighters under the direction of Assistant Chief Michael Little fully extinguished the blaze in one hour and three minutes while remaining in an offensive attack. The blaze was confined to the 25,835 square-foot building of origin.

The dollar loss is estimated at $1.75 million ($750,000 content & one million structure).

The cause of the fire is undetermined, however it is under investigation by LAFD's Arson Counter-Terrorism Section, whom is actively pursuing leads and interviewing persons of interest.

Dispatched Units: E59 RA59 E292 T92 RA92 E37 E62 E43 E263 T63 EM9 BC9 BC18 E67 E237 T37 E62 BC9 E43 E263 T63 E37 RA59 EM9 BC18 E19 E269 T69 DC3 SQ21 EM14 BC5 T5 E205 E5 RA5 UR88 BC4 E67 AR2 RA19 RA37 EA2 E29 T10 E210 BC11 EA1 RT59

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Submitted by Erik Scott, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department

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