{"id":74997,"date":"2020-05-18T13:02:37","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T05:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=74997"},"modified":"2020-05-18T13:03:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T05:03:14","slug":"us-11-firefighters-injured-in-los-angeles-battling-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=74997","title":{"rendered":"US: 11 firefighters injured in Los Angeles battling blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/11-firefighters-injured-in-Los-Angeles-battling-blaze.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/11-firefighters-injured-in-Los-Angeles-battling-blaze.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>LOS ANGELES, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Eleven firefighters were injured, three of them critically, in downtown Los Angeles when a Saturday fire in a commercial smoke shop sparked a major explosion and spread to nearby structures, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crews had entered the building to battle what was initially thought to be a minor blaze when they noticed that the smoke pressure was escalating and decided to evacuate, Los Angeles Fire Department chief Ralph Terrazas told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the blast occurred as the firefighters were leaving the building from the roof and the ground floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA witness account is that our firefighters came down the aerial ladder from the roof with their turnout coats on fire,\u201d Terrazas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said three firefighters had critical but not life-threatening injuries and another had serious injuries, while the remainder had varying degrees of burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are no symptoms of blast injuries but there\u2019s potential evidence of chemical inhalation,\u201d Garcetti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGood news is, everybody\u2019s gonna make it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Terrazas said firefighters saw butane canisters inside the building and outside on the street but it was unclear what caused the blaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEverything is under investigation by our arson team, all I can say at this point is that the cause is under investigation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some 230 responders battled the blaze as it spread to other buildings in the area before it was extinguished around two hours after it began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fire officials said the building where the blast occurred housed a business \u2014 Smoke Totes Wholesale Distribution \u2014 that sold smoking and vaping paraphernalia and supplied other businesses that make butane honey oil, a highly flammable resin used for inhaling marijuana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several storefronts in the area were blackened by the force of the blast while one fire truck had a scorched roof and was covered with debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thick smoke from the blaze was visible from miles away. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Eleven firefighters were injured, three of them critically, in downtown Los Angeles when a Saturday fire in a commercial smoke shop sparked a major explosion and spread to nearby structures, officials said. Crews had entered the building to battle what was initially thought to be a minor blaze when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":74999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74997"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}