LOS ANGELES - Firefighters are investigating to determine if homeless people are responsible for a large fire that destroyed the historic Morrison Hotel Thursday in downtown Los Angeles. The former hotel, located at the intersection of Pico and Hope, has been vacant for about 10 years. https://citizen.com/-OF3M57SuYDtsLHNdT4K https://www.foxla.com/news/downtown-la-vacant-building-fire Around 11:20 a.m., more than 100 firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department were called to the four-story, nearly 100-year-old building that was erupting in massive flames. Cellphone video shared with FOX 11 shows at least one person trying to leave the property on an outside fire escape. Although the building is vacant, fire officials said there were some homeless people in the structure, and ladders were raised to the building's windows to help them exit. "In the fire department, we say there are no vacant buildings in the City of Los Angeles," said David Ortiz from LAFD. "A lot of the large, unhoused community uses these vacant buildings as their temporary residences. Several dozen [today] were seen self-evacuating at the time of the fire."
Almost 100 firefighters worked for at least two hours from 11 a.m. to control the fire at the downtown Los Angeles hotel best known for being on the cover of the legendary rock album.
Investigators are still looking into whether the squatters may have caused the blaze, according to Fox 11
But the homeless people squatting there have been a constant problem for its current owners, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit that bought the building in 2022 for almost $12 million to transform it into affordable housing.
The building was previously used as low-income housing until it was vacated in 2008, and had not had any official residents for almost 10 years. A previous plan to turn it into a luxury hotel was nixed when a developer defaulted on a loan, the LA Times said.
The blaze destroyed the roof of the building now red-tagged as being unlivable.
Trailing Trading 212*, Plum* and Moneybox are Monument Bank and Mansfield Building Society which are…
Howard proved to be clutch down the stretch and led the Buckeyes to their first…
Psychological distress The challenges and risks of life at sea were not just physical but…
McDonald’s, Amazon, Meta and American Airlines have also since announced a change to their DEI…
What about the economy?The conflict has also had a "devastating impact" on Gaza's economy, said…
The Bears have so far confirmed that they have interviewed 17 candidates to be their…