Animals in Koreatown pet store killed in structure fire

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Fire officials said 20 birds, 100 fish and a dog from a Koreatown pet store were killed during a structure fire Saturday morning.

The fire in the three-story building was reported at around 8:20 a.m. in the 3000 block of 6th Street. Fire officials said the blaze was confined just to the pet store on the first floor, although the apartment units above were being filled with smoke.

Chris Choi was working at the time.

"I hear a loud bang against the side of my studio, and so I peek out my window and I see a giant ladder up on the fourth floor, and there's like a fireman climbing up it. I didn't really know what was going on," Choi said.

Firefighters had a hard time finding the origin of the fire because there were no flames, just a lot of smoke. It was eventually determined that the fire started in the business' storage room.

The storage room contained different mercantile items like pet food, cages and paper products, according to LAFD Capt. Jaime Moore.

Store owner Elizabeth Lee's pet bulldog and macaw were also in the the storage room. They died in the fire.

"We are very upset. They were like family, like children," Lee said.

When crews arrived on scene, they immediately started evacuating animals, but they couldn't save all of them. The other animals suffocated due to the smoke.

Residents of the apartment complex were not injured. It took 41 firefighters about 30 minutes to knock down the blaze, according to a tweet from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

As firefighters swept out water and charred debris from the store, neighbors couldn't help but think of the Lee family.

"It's real sad to see the pet shop owners lose their business like that," said neighbor Wayne Johnson. "We see her when she's out taking trash and doing her business, and we say hello, but they don't speak too much English so we keep it short, but yeah, they're real nice, sweet people."

Arson investigators believe the fire erupted due to an electrical problem in the pet store's storage area.