Thirteen people were injured, and countless residents were displaced after a windswept fire tore through a 25-story apartment building on the west side of Los Angeles on the morning of Wednesday, January 29.
The flames broke out on the sixth floor in one of three buildings at the Barrington Plaza complex, located at 11740 Wilshire Boulevard in the Sawtelle neighborhood. It is the same building where a destructive fire burned about six years ago.
Thick, dark smoke and flames could be seen billowing from the building’s southeast corner as crews worked to extinguish the fire, which officials say was driven by wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour. Multiple windows were blown out due to the intense heat.
Hundreds of firefighters from multiple agencies responded and knocked the blaze down in approximately one hour and 19 minutes, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
An LAFD spokesman stated that, of those injured, one is in grave condition and another is in critical condition. The youngest patient—not among the seriously injured—is about three months old. Two firefighters sustained minor burns and were treated at a local hospital.
Several apartment units across multiple floors sustained extensive damage, with twisted, melted metal and broken glass windows visible amid the building’s charred exterior. The high-rise has 240 units and 339 residents, all of whom have temporarily been displaced.
Residents described a frightening and chaotic scene, and some claim they didn’t hear an alarm and were first alerted to the blaze by neighbors knocking on their doors. One woman said she heard an alarm, but it didn’t go off until “way after the smoke was already everywhere.”
Video and photos show a man on the exterior of the building clinging to a sixth or seventh floor near raging flames while a firefighter on a ladder attempted to rescue him. He was ultimately brought down safely.
In October 2013, a fire tore through the 11th floor of the same building at Barrington Plaza, injuring eight people, displacing dozens of residents and causing millions of dollars in damages. The cause of that blaze was “undetermined,” but it was “most probably” sparked by a discarded cigarette, according to the Fire Department.
The 386-unit building, which was built in 1961, lacks an internal sprinkler system, fire officials said, and some are now questioning why sprinklers were not installed after the 2013 blaze.
Arson investigators have been dispatched to the scene to determine what sparked the destructive blaze and are looking into whether it is related to another one that burned earlier in the morning at a high-rise office building several blocks away, at the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards. At least 50 people were evacuated from the fire, which began on lower floors and was knocked down within 90 minutes, an LAFD alert stated.
Firefighters who battled that blaze were among the first responders to arrive at the second scene.
For more on this story go to KTLA News.