Echo Park mudslide takes down building wall, crushes cars

ECHO PARK, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A wall collapsed at an Echo Park building, leading to a mud and debris slide that crushed two vehicles and left a home red-tagged on Thursday.

Residents on Douglas Avenue were jolted awake by a 20-foot wall and patio crashing down onto a pair of parked cars below.

"It just sounded like either, like, a very giant tree falling or like a car hitting another car at 80 miles an hour. It was a loud bang," shared Echo Park resident Taylor Florio.

Florio said a woman's Honda Accord was crushed, and his roommate's vehicle was holding up the fence. That roommate, Jason Gudasz, said a rock came down and sliced off one of his car's tires.

"So that was more my concern was making sure that his car wasn't completely totaled. So just kind of checked it and then everyone kind of scattered away once we figured out that it was gas leaking. We all kind of smelled it," Florio explained.

The fire department stopped the leak from the severed gas line. Southern California Gas Company crews couldn't fix the line until the rest of the debris was cleaned up.

No injuries were reported in the incident, but the building above was red-tagged.

Meantime, there was another early morning scare in La Cañada Flintridge. A retaining wall behind a home came down, bringing with it a terraced garden.

The homeowner said a city engineer came out, said the home was still strongly attached to the bedrock, and he was allowed back inside.