1 person hospitalized after large fire breaks out at commercial building in Winnetka
WINNETKA, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- One person was hospitalized after a large fire broke out at a two-story commercial building in the Winnetka area of Los Angeles early Tuesday morning.
The blaze was reported shortly after 5 a.m. in the 21200 block of W. Sherman Way. The street in the immediate area was closed off in both directions.
AIR7 was over the scene as crews worked to prevent the fire from spreading to the rest of the building.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said the building suffered a partial roof collapse. A nearby two-story apartment building was not threatened by the blaze and firefighters applied water to the exterior of the apartment building for additional protection, according to the agency.
"Firefighters did an outstanding job keeping those flames away from that apartment building to the extent that we didn't even need to evacuate them during the early morning hours," said LAFD Capt. Erik Scott.
No evacuations were required but residents were told to shelter-in-place, according to LAFD.
A 36-year-old woman was taken to the hospital in fair condition, according to the fire department. No other injuries were reported.
It took over 120 firefighters just under 2 hours to extinguish the fire. After days of strong winds, the weather cooperated with no strong breezes, which helped firefighters contain the fire.
"Earlier this week, there was a lot of significant Santa Ana wind conditions, which, of course, makes our job so much more challenging," said Scott. "Fortunately, this morning, it's sunny, it's not windy ... firefighters did a great job stopping those flames from going to where all the people are."
Investigators were dispatched to the scene, per protocol. Meantime, the building has since been red-tagged.
Orlando Cruz told ABC7 he's had his real estate business there for 20 years, saying it wasn't exactly how he wanted to celebrate his birthday on Tuesday.
"I'm hoping I can recuperate something, but it look like everything is destroyed," he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
