Firefighters battle greater alarm blaze in downtown commerical building

Firefighters today extinguished a greater-alarm blaze at an apparently vacant commercial building in the Central City area south of downtown Los Angeles and prevented the flames from spreading to other structures.

The fire in the 1800 block of East Washington Boulevard was reported about 5:30 a.m., said Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The flames were extinguished in about an hour, but some firefighters remained on
the scene dousing hot spots.

Arriving firefighters found that the roof of the single-story building had collapsed, prompting them to go into defensive mode, battling the blaze from the exterior as they worked to prevent the flames from spreading to other buildings.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. A damage estimate was not immediately available. Traffic was routed away from the area as a precaution during the firefighting effort.