Fire damages two-story Church in Harvard Heights
LOS ANGELES - Firefighters Friday extinguished a fire at the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, a two-story church located in the 2000 block of South Oxford Avenue in the Harvard Heights neighborhood.
The Los Angeles Fire Department received the call at 12:51 p.m. and arrived to find moderate smoke coming from the building. Crews launched an aggressive offensive operation, with additional resources requested to assist in containing the fire.
"Sixty firefighters extinguished the fire in 49 minutes with no injuries reported," an LAFD statement said.
"Crews had to locate and access fire within walls of one portion of the large church building and chase it through to ensure there were no pockets of fire remaining," the statement said. "The primary and secondary searches are clear with no one located inside."
"The structure is (doing business as) a church," the LAFD statement said. "Therefore, per protocol, the House of Worship Task Force was notified."
The Los Angeles House of Worship Arson Task Force is comprised of personnel from the following agencies: the LAFD; the Los Angeles Police Department; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The extent of the damage to the church is still being assessed. No injuries have been reported, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by the Los Angeles Fire Department. CNS contributed to this report.