VENICE — Seven Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters were injured while fighting a major blaze overnight at a Venice storage facility that continued to burn after more than 12 hours, authorities said.
Three of the firefighters had to be taken to the hospital though none sustained life-threatening injuries, LADF Spokesman Brian Humphrey said Sunday morning.
The fire at Extra Space Storage, 658 Venice Blvd., was first reported by a passerby who saw smoke coming from the building at 7:37 p.m. Saturday., Humphrey said.
The flames were under control as of 7:15 a.m. Sunday, but the fire had not been fully extinguished. More than 200 firefighters from around the city responded to the blaze, he said.
Firefighters faced several challenges in fighting this stubborn fire, Humphrey said.
“In a self-storage facility, it gets highly compartmentalized and it contains a vast variety of storage from residential properties and local businesses. … We have a panoply of hazards inside such a structure,” he said. “The additional challenge was the nature of the building construction, the metal roof, the concrete floors. Every single storage unit was locked. We had to fight entry into each storage unit and then fight a fire of densely stacked contents.”
Humphrey said firefighters will remain on scene all day Sunday to extinguish the remaining smoldering debris and to determine the cause of the fire.
Firefighters will also do whatever they can to assist clients in recovering their property from the storage facility in a safe manner, he said.
