Greater-Alarm Apartment Fire Erupts In South LA, Residents Safely Escape

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Dozens of firefighters battled a greater-alarm fire which erupted at a two-story apartment building in South Los Angeles' Vermont Knolls neighborhood.

The blaze was reported at 5:23 a.m. in the 1000 block of West 85th Street. Crews arrived on scene to find heavy flames and smoke billowing from the second story of the apartment building.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, the L.A. Fire Department reports. A resident told CBSLA that everyone safely escaped after a homeless man who happened to be walking by at the time banged on doors, yelled and woke them up.

"The guy started yelling and banging on the front door for everybody to get out of the building," resident Clayborn Holmes told reporters.

It took 78 firefighters about 24 minutes to bring the flames under control. The blaze was mostly contained to one apartment and its attic space, LAFD said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. Holmes said that he and his son had been asleep and had not smelled anything.

Most of the damaged was confined to the upstairs unit where the fire started. City inspectors, however, are still working to determine if the rest of the building is safe.

"There's water leaking from ceiling, my floors are wet, they got all my TVs and everything in the middle of the room, everything covered up," Holmes said.

The Red Cross is assisting the residents of the eight units in the building with temporary housing.

In:
• KCAL 9
• South LA