Residents and at least one building manager said they contacted city officials about homeless people squatting and starting fires in an unfinished building in Los Angeles’ Chinatown neighborhood months before a devastating fire broke out Friday morning.
The fire, which was initially reported to be on North Bunker Hill but updated to the 700 block of West New Depot Street in later Los Angeles Fire Department news alerts, spread to a nearby apartment building.
Six people were injured, including a 90-year-old man who was hospitalized in critical condition, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. A 55-year-old woman was also taken to the hospital with a non-life-threatening burn injury, and two patients were assessed at the scene and declined ambulance transport.
One firefighter was taken to a health facility with a non-life-threatening injury, and another was treated at the scene, likely for heat exhaustion, the Fire Department stated.
The cause remains under investigation.
Katie Antenson lives in a building nearby and told KTLA’s Annie Rose Ramos that squatters have been living in the unfinished building and residents have expressed their concerns to officials several times.
“We knew this was coming, and we have told our representatives this was going to happen, and they have not listened to us. We have been abandoned, and now this is where we are. We have neighbors who are in the hospital,” she said.
Antenson said construction stopped on the building about two years ago, and she described seeing about four small fires break out this year alone. She said the homeless people there are also disruptive to the neighborhood.
“They started playing music at all hours of the night … and at its worst, there were about a half-dozen people living there. So, it’s been a big problem for the neighborhood for a long time now,” she said.
A building manager for a neighboring structure who believes squatters were responsible for the fire said he’s also called the police and the office of Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area.
When she called, Antenson said officials could do nothing because she wasn’t the property owner and didn’t know if the people were supposed to be there. She said she was also asked to fill out a form to a building and safety office, which she did in mid-July, but she never heard back.
“It’s just been silence from everyone that we have reached out to,” she said.
KTLA has requested a statement from Hernandez’s office and is awaiting a response.