Crews battle large fire at vacant restaurant in Boyle Heights

Firefighters were engaged with a large structure fire at a vacant restaurant in Boyle Heights early Wednesday morning.

Los Angeles Fire Department crews could be seen engaging the massive flames as they escaped from the roof of the reportedly unoccupied structure located on S. Soto Street. 

The blaze, which started a little before 5:30 a.m., had fully engulfed the restaurant by 5:50 p.m. as multiple firefighters on ladders attempted to battle from above. 

As they continued to fight the spread to surrounding buildings, firefighters asked for help from Los Angeles Police Department to shutdown Soto Street as they called for additional fire recourses. 

At 6:19 a.m., the department reported that 50 firefighters had extinguished the flames in just under 40 minutes. 

According to LAFD, this was the third time that the building has caught fire. 

"It was boarded up from the previous burn so our firefighters had to do some forcible entry to gain access," said LAFD Assistant Chief Kristina Kepner. "We quickly went defensive and hit it from all sides of the building with water."

The cause of the fire was not immediately known and it was unclear if there were any injuries. 

Arson investigators were called to the scene to survey the area and determine a cause.