Major Emergency Fire in Downtown Los Angeles Causes Widespread Smoke Odor
A major emergency structure fire consumed a large downtown Los Angeles flooring business early Sunday morning, with unseasonal weather causing a strong and persistent smoke odor to linger across the greater Los Angeles area for more than two days.
The fire was reported at 2:57 AM on August 21, 2022, bringing the first of more than 150 Los Angeles Fire Department responders to 1228 South Compton Avenue, where firefighters arrived quickly to find heavy smoke and fire within a 15,000 square foot U-shaped one-story metal clad commercial building housing C.Y. Flooring, a purveyor of wood, laminate and vinyl flooring products.
Firefighters forced entry onto the property and into the well secured premises to battle fierce flames, which involved retail space and dense warehousing of flooring products within conjoined metal structures.
As fire swept through the main building and into an annex, firefighters were forced to transition to defensive operations, successfully preventing fire from consuming the firm's office space or damaging three immediately adjacent industrial buildings.
The non-injury fire was brought under control in just 83 minutes with the extinguishment of active flame.
With countless tons of smoldering debris and physically unstable building remnants, the LAFD assigned more than a dozen personnel to remain continuously on scene through Tuesday, to skilfully utilize LAFD heavy equipment, including an excavator, track loader, two skid-steer loaders and the LAFD RS3 Robotic Firefighting Vehicle, to abate structural hazards, overhaul the scene and further soak the hot and smoking mountain of debris.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
