“It’s huge. I really can’t remember a building fire this big and I have been with the department for 13 years,” said David Ortiz, public information officer at the Los Angeles Fire Department. The seven-story building looked certain to be completely lost. Fire quickly extinguished and burned 3 towers. The building contained was 1.3 million square feet of floor space, and officials said two-thirds of it was consumed by flames. As of 5 a.m., the site was still smoldering.
The cause of the blaze was not yet known. The complexes have been part of the revitalization of downtown. The northbound 110 Freeway remained closed as of 5 a.m., but Caltrans reopened the 101 Freeway and the southbound 110 at around 4:30 a.m. There were no immediate reports of injuries or a cause of the fire.
