A fire broke out at a massive Vernon building for a second straight day, sending thick black smoke into the air Tuesday morning.
A fire broke out at a 15,000-square-foot flooring store at South Alameda and East 55th Street around 1 a.m. Monday and took more than four hours to put out — or so crews thought.
But around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles Fire Department said the fire started again and has now destroyed nearby power poles.
Video from the scene showed roads surrounding the building crowded with firefighters and equipment as crews sprayed water on piles of broken metal and burning material on the site. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power shut down power lines that posed a hazard, officials said.
“Crews were faced with the complex task of entering and extinguishing a fire hidden within a large pallet warehouse,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a news release Monday when they initially declared the fire extinguished. “Special units including heavy equipment and RS3 (LAFD’s firefighting robot) were brought in to help expose, access and break apart the burning materials.”
Cleanup around the fire was expected to take several days, and that was before Tuesday’s blaze. Los Angeles Fire Department officials said the fire was not expected to affect train service on nearby rail lines and the smell of smoke should dissipate throughout the week.
No injuries had been reported as of Tuesday morning.