One Person Found Dead In South LA Homeless Encampment Fire
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Firefighters found a person dead while extinguishing a blaze at a homeless encampment in South Los Angeles early Thursday morning.
The fire was reported at 3 a.m. in the 200 block of West 38th Street, a few blocks from the 110 Freeway and Exposition Park.
L.A. Fire Department crews arrived on scene to find flames billowing from a curbside homeless camp with a parked RV. A person's remains were found in the debris.
The victim's identity was not immediately known. The cause of the fire was also not confirmed.
Los Angeles has seen an uptick in homeless encampment fires as the homeless crisis continues to plague the region. According to numbers obtained by CBSLA last week, an alarming 54% of the fires responded to by LAFD in recent weeks have been caused by people experiencing homelessness. In the downtown L.A. area, that rate jumps to 80%.