2 dead, 1 injured in fiery high-speed Inglewood crash

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- Two people are dead and one other person is in critical condition after a fiery crash in Inglewood Thursday morning, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Authorities said the accident happened around 9:23 a.m. near the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and 107th Street. The crash site was near a county fire station, whose firefighter-paramedics heard the impact and rushed to help.

Two vehicles were involved in the wreck, and both were engulfed in flames after the gas tank of one of the cars ruptured, fire officials said. The impact was so severe that the cars were found about a block apart.

Two victims were extricated from one of the cars by firefighters and good Samaritans, said fire Capt. Brian Jordan. One of them was immediately pronounced dead at the scene and the other person died despite CPR efforts.

A third victim suffered a broken leg and was removed from the other vehicle by an off-duty firefighter from a nearby fire station, Jordan said. That person was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.

"As far as the investigative part of this, obviously the Inglewood Police Department will handle that," the fire captain said. "But these two vehicles did collide and it involved a high rate of speed."

Witnesses said the impact sounded as if a bomb went off. "It seemed as if it was a blast, you know. Like a bomb," said one man who witnessed the crash.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.