Major Emergency Structure Fire
4178 E. Chevy Chase Dr.
Atwater Village
Sunday, September 21, 2008
TIME: 9:41 AM
INCIDENT #: 0425
On Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 9:41 AM, 16 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 7 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 1 Arson Unit, 2 Urban Search and Rescue Units, 1 Hazardous Materials Team, 3 EMS Battalion Captains, 7 Battalion Chief Officer Command Teams, 1 Division Chief Officer Command Team, Emergency Air 1, 5 Glendale Fire Department Companies, LAPD, L.A. Co. Health Haz Mat and Union Pacific Railroad, under the direction of Assistant Chief Daryl Arbuthnott, responded to a Major Emergency Structure Fire at 4178 E. Chevy Chase Dr. in the Atwater Village area.
Firefighters arriving on scene found a 1 story, 50 foot by 100 foot, commercial building with heavy smoke showing. As firefighting companies deployed 2-1/2 inch handlines, the roof top team initiated an aggressive ventilation effort and indicated heavy fire progressing from the front to the back of the building. At 0956 hours, the intense fire burned high voltage wires adding an additional hazard, prompting the IC to withdraw the ventilation and interior fire attack teams and shift to a defensive attack at 1007 hours. Union Pacific Railroad was contacted and a request was made to shut down potential train traffic because of the close proximity of the tracks to incident, Firefighting personnel and apparatus.
It took approximately 126 LAFD Firefighters 39 minutes to call a knockdown on the fire. The cause of the fire to Systems Trade Printing, a well established Atwater business, was determined to be electrical. The significant dollar loss, mostly confined to the contents, was estimated at $3,800,000 [$300,000 structure, $3,500,000 contents]. One female was treated and transported by Glendale Fire to an area hospital.
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d'Lisa Davies
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Emergency Public Information Center
Los Angeles Fire Department
Office: 213-485-5162
