Neighbors alert sleeping L.A. County firefighters to firehouse blaze

By Andrew J. Campa
Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Fervent honking began just before 4 a.m. from drivers passing along Santa Fe Avenue in Huntington Park who witnessed one of the city’s two fire stations burning.

Neighbors living nearby banged on the door of the two-story office and dormitory as the adjacent garage was engulfed in flames.

They were trying to alert sleeping firefighters to a blaze in their own building.

Eventually, crews from Huntington Park’s Fire Station No. 164 descended from their second-story living quarters, some in shorts, others in T-shirts and flip-flops, according to Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn .

Nevertheless, they grabbed as much gear as possible and even fought the blaze with garden hoses. Aid also came from Los Angeles County firefighters from other stations, who helped douse the fire that destroyed a fair amount of the station.

Afterward, the L.A. County Fire Department classified the blaze as a two-alarm fire that was knocked down at 5:17 a.m.

There were no injuries or hospitalizations, fire personnel noted. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined and will be investigated by an outside agency, likely Cal Fire , said Kenichi Haskett , a Los Angeles County Fire spokesperson.

Hahn toured the torched facilities along with Huntington Park city leaders later that morning and posted photos that showed a burned-out sports utility vehicle and a fire engine.

There were also charred helmets, protective clothing and radio equipment.

“I wanted these firefighters, first of all, to know that I support them [and] the county supports them,” she said on social media.

Hahn said she also visited to see the “devastation” for herself.

“I wanted the chief of the fire department to know that the county will provide all the resources we need to make sure that we can rebuild, replace and make sure that these communities are still covered,” Hahn said.

The temporary closure of the station should not impact response times in the city, Haskett said.

He confirmed that some fire personnel were being relocated to Vernon and surrounding communities but could not give an exact timeline for a return to the station.

“It would be fair to say approximately six months to a year to be 100% operational,” he said.

The station’s destruction leaves only one functioning fire station for the city of over 50,000.

Haskett said 33 fire personnel are assigned to Station No. 164, with three shifts of 11 members each, including paramedics, firefighters, fire truck operators and a battalion chief.

Huntington Park Mayor Karina Macias toured the area with Hahn, the city’s vice mayor and the director of planning.

Macias said the station had been in service since 1962 and was known in the community as “The Big House 164.”

“Station 164 is a pillar in the community and it is unfortunate to see the fire damage, but I am content that nobody was hurt,” Macias said.

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