A major blaze broke out on Wednesday morning in a high-rise building in west LA, with at least one person desperately scaling the building to escape the growing flames. Firefighters below rushed in with ladders to help him down.
The fire broke out on the sixth floor of a 25-story apartment building at the Barrington Plaza complex, before spreading quickly to other floors above and below.
Eyewitness footage shared to social media showed one particularly dramatic rescue, when one man scaled the side of the building as thick smoke poured out of the window he had escaped through. Firefighters quickly raised a ladder below him as he clung onto a window ledge, and carefully guided him to safety.
Some 335 firefighters tackled the blaze. Fire department officials later told reporters there were no fatalities in the fire, but they did need to talk two people out of jumping from the building to escape the flames. At least eight people were airlifted by helicopter off the rooftop of the building for medical treatment.
Of the eight people injured in the incident, six were due to smoke inhalation, including a three-month-old child.
The fire has been successfully extinguished, but firefighters are moving door-to-door inside the building to check for anyone who was trapped inside, and are putting shelter in place for those affected by the fire.
Authorities said there was no sprinkler system in the building, which contributed to the aggressive nature of the fire. The cause of the blaze is being investigated.
Firefighters were able to respond to the fire so quickly because they were already on the scene at another fire only three blocks away in Brentwood. That fire broke out on the lowers floors of a building being remodeled.
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