A major emergency fire tore through an abandoned building in East Hollywood that once housed a medical clinic and it took firefighters nearly two hours Friday night to extinguish the flames.
The fire was reported about 7:35 p.m. in the 1200 block of North Vermont Avenue, between Fountain Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, at a building that was the site of a previous fire, according to Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
"Firefighters arrived to find a 5,546-square foot vacant medical clinic with fire showing from the second floor," Stewart said.
Crews went into the building, but heavy flames forced them out of the structure, off of its roof and into defensive positions, Stewart said.
A total of 115 firefighters continued to pour water onto the blaze from outside the building, which had a one-story and a two-story section. Knock down was declared at 9:27 p.m., she said.
Authorities confirmed the building had burned before, but Branden Silverman with the LA Fire Department called those incidences “not of significance.”
Locals fear there may be a fire bug in the area.
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"There was an apartment building that was burnt down in the middle of the night, there was a restaurant place that was burnt down in the middle of the night, trash cans keep ending up on fire -- so I think that there is someone setting these fires intentionally," neighbor Charlotte Langley said.
The fire department says there was no one around when their crews arrived.
"We did get initial reports … that there were people jumping out of windows. When first arriving units arrived on scene we did not find anyone jumping out of windows or on the roof," Silverman said.
The Hollywood Hotel sits right next door. It’s been impacted by the smoke, but has not reported any fire damage.
There were no reports of injuries and the cause of the fire was under investigation by the LAFD Arson and Counter-Terrorism Section.
