Fire heavily damaged a historic downtown Los Angeles building Thursday that once housed the iconic Morrison Hotel -- made famous by a 1970 album by The Doors -- and while there were no immediate reports of any injuries, crews were awaiting clearance to conduct a more thorough search of the structure.
The fire was reported around 11:20 a.m. Thursday at the four-story building at 1246 S. Hope St., near the intersection of West Pico Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The fire was initially reported on the top floor of the building, with thick smoke pouring from the structure.
The fire department classified the incident as a major emergency, deploying 17 fire companies to the scene.
"Crews placed ground ladders to the fire escapes to assist unhoused persons exiting the vacant structure," according to a statement from the LAFD.
It was unclear how many people may have been inside the building when the fire broke out. According to the LAFD, several dozen people had exited the building before crews arrived, and when firefighters made their way inside, they found three more people on the third floor and used ladders that had been raised to fire escapes to evacuate them.
As the fire raged, the roof of the structure partially collapsed, forcing crews into a defensive mode -- pulling all personnel out of the building and pouring water onto the fire from the exterior.
The fire was knocked down in just under two hours.
According to the fire department, crews were expected to remain on the scene overnight to ensure there are no flareups. Once the building is deemed safe to enter, crews plan to search the fourth floor with the assistance of human-remains-detecting dogs to determine if anyone was on that level when the fire erupted.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
According to the LAFD, the structure has been largely vacant for about 15 years, and it has been used by the department for training operations, which gave responding crews an advantage as they made their way into the building.