A man was found dead Thursday morning, inside a burning apartment in Hollywood.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded at 8:49 AM on January 12, 2023, to a structure fire at 5555 Harold Way. Firefighters arrived quickly to discover heavy fire within one second floor unit at the rear of a seventy unit 4 story center hallway style apartment building, and immediately began a well-coordinated offensive attack on the flames.
Though tall flames from the fully involved apartment soon lapped from the windows to threaten the apartment above, firefighters prevented the flames from entering the uninvolved unit, as they quickly rescued two cats and a pet rabbit from the smoke charged upstairs apartment, and brought them to safety.
Fifty-two LAFD Firefighters took just 24 minutes to access, confine and fully extinguish the intense flames, fueled by furnishings and a significant amount of personal storage within the small apartment. In battling the last remnants of fire, responders discovered one adult male deceased inside his residence.
No other injuries were reported.
Though the involved apartment was equipped with a smoke alarm as required by law, its functional status at the time of the fire could not be immediately determined. No apparent physical factors were identified as obstacles to emergency egress from the apartment. The 63,682 square-foot, thirty-three year old building did not feature optional residential fire sprinklers.
A positive identification of the dead man, as well as the cause, time and manner of his death, will be formally determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.
Monetary loss from the fire is still being tabulated. The cause of the fire remains under active investigation.
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