Fire Engulfs Koreatown Apartment Building, Causing 12 Units To Be Declared Uninhabitable
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A three-story Koreatown apartment building went up in flames Saturday afternoon.
The fire was reported at 2:07 p.m. at 3045 West Leeward Avenue, according to Los Angeles Fire Department officials.
In all, 102 firefighters battled the blaze, which engulfed the building's walls, attic and roof.
Certain parts of the building were protected from the flames due to fire-resistant doors so some residents were able to shelter-in-place, LAFD spokesman Nicholas Prange said.
Twelve units in the 30-unit building have been declared uninhabitable.
Investigators believe the blaze began with an electrical fire in a hallway on the first floor that spread up to the second and third floors.
One of the tenants, Lainey Chantal, is the girlfriend of Jane's Addiction guitarist, Dave Navarro. Chantal's roommate alerted her to the fire, but when she got there it was too dangerous to go back inside. Her unit was one of the hardest hit.
"I asked the firefighters to grab my medication because they were getting like, animals and very important things," Chantal said.
The couple was at a benefit concert in which Navarro was performing and rushed to the building as soon as he got off the stage.
The couple told CBSLA they wanted to thank firefighters who went back into Lainey's apartment.
"It was all about serving the people of this community," said Navarro. "And they got their hands full and yet, they still attended to our particular needs, while they're in the midst of this. I can't thank them enough. Luckily, we had our dog. He's okay. I guess we're going to figure it out."
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
