Once home to Morrison Hotel, historic building in downtown Los Angeles goes up in flames

Flames ripped through the building that was once the historic Morrison Hotel in downtown Los Angeles Thursday, with several dozen people inside managing to escape before firefighters tackled the blaze.

The hotel was the backdrop to the cover of the 1970 album by The Doors of the same name, and in more recent years, was set to be partially demolished and renovated into a luxury hotel. It was bought last year by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which planned to convert it into an affordable housing development.

But the nonprofit was still in the drawing and planning phase of construction when the 110-year-old building caught fire Thursday.

Over the last couple months, people struggling with homelessness had repeatedly entered the building, according to the nonprofit, which tried to stop the trespassing by installing fencing and covering doors with steel plates. 

"As soon as we secure the building, the homeless come up with power tools within hours and just cut the locks off," said Mark Dyer, vice president of operations for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

On Thursday, several dozen people inside were fleeing the blaze just as firefighters responded at about 11 a.m., according to LAFD.

"There were some unhoused persons exiting the building," said Margaret Stewart, an LAFD spokesperson. "We did have firefighters place ground ladders to fire escapes because they could see there were a couple of people coming to the fire escapes."  

While no one was injured, firefighters helped out at least three individuals through the fire escapes, authorities said.

Heavy fire had overtaken the top floor of the four-story building by the time firefighters responded, according to LAFD, and firefighters have not been able to confirm whether that floor was evacuated before they arrived. So K-9 units for detecting human remains will search through that floor once the building is safe to enter, authorities said.

Meanwhile, firefighters were not able to fully extinguish the fire since it wasn't safe to remain inside due to a partial collapse of the roof, according to LAFD. So crews will be on fire watch through the night to watch out for any flare-ups.

Before the fire, the nearly 50,000-square-foot building had already been red-tagged by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, which will now evaluate whether it is salvageable, LAFD officials said. That decision will determine whether the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's plans for an affordable housing development can still go through. 

Henry Diltz, the photographer who shot the Doors album cover, told CBS News Los Angeles he was "very sad" to see the historic building burn. "I hope somebody will rebuild it," he said.

In a Facebook post in 2020, he recounted how the iconic photograph came to life.

"On this day, December 17th, 1969, we were out taking photos for the Morrison Hotel album cover. We were at a transient hotel in Downtown LA on Hope Street," the post reads. "The Doors didn't have permission to take pictures, so when the lobby was empty, they ran in quickly and sat behind the window. One roll of film shot before we got asked to leave."

He said Thursday the whole situation ran about five minutes as they rushed to get out in time. The hotel clerk had told them they couldn't photograph there. "And we got out of there, and nobody caught us," he said.

On Thursday, crews first arrived to the sight of smoke coming from the building and quickly moved to a defensive mode, targeting the well-developed fire on the top floor. 

Aerial footage showed a large cloud of smoke visible above the downtown Los Angeles skyline. Stewart said commuters should avoid the area as Pico Boulevard was shut down — the building is located at the intersection of Pico and Hope Street.