One person was killed and two others were injured when a fire ripped through a building in Hollywood Thursday evening.
The fire was first reported around 6:35 p.m. at an industrial building on the 6600 block of W. Lexington Avenue.
Firefighters arrived on scene to find smoke pouring out of a two-story concrete building. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, 78 firefighters battled the blaze and were able to extinguish the flames in about 51 minutes.
When firefighters searched the structure, they found one person dead inside the building. That person’s identity has not yet been released.
Two people at the scene complained of respiratory issues related to smoke exposure, fire officials said, but were treated and released at the scene.
Sharon Osbourne, television personality and wife of legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne, posted about the fire on her Instagram page. In her post, Osbourne said the couple’s daughter, Aimee Osbourne, was in the building at the time working in a recording studio.
Osbourne’s daughter was one of the two who got out alive, the talk show host and reality TV star said.
“It is utterly heartbreaking that someone lost their life today in this fire & we are sending our prayers to this person & their family,” Sharon Osbourne said on Instagram. “What happened today was beyond horrific.”
Osbourne described the building as a “creative hub for music in Hollywood” and while offering her condolences to the life lost and the musical equipment destroyed in the fire, she criticized what she believed to be a lack of fire safety and regulations at the building.
“I really hope moving forward that buildings like this are better regulated for fire safety,” Osbourne’s post reads. Osbourne said the space “should have been regulated for fire code.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation. It’s unclear at this time if the building was in fact up to code or not.
