Two of the 12 injured firefighters are in serious condition. Three other of them were discharged
The investigation continues at the scene.
Photo:
Etienne Laurent / EFE
The An explosion in a downtown Los Angeles establishment that wounded 12 firefighters on Saturday afternoon could have originated in a warehouse with products to make marijuanaauthorities reported this Sunday, who are still investigating what happened.
The incident took place at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at a Little Tokyo establishment called Smoke Tokes. There, the agents found small butane cans inside and outside a warehouse only one story high, said Ralph Terrazas, chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
Smoke Tokes is defined on its website as an "international distributor and wholesaler of smoking and vaping products". The warehouse seemed to have supplies for manufacturers of hashish oil (marijuana resin), according to the Fire Department.
Firefighters came to put out the fire that had been generated inside the building, Terrazas said. But one explosion injured 12 firefighters.
According to doctor Mark Eckstein on Saturday night, all of them were transferred to the Los Angeles County USC Medical Center. Four of them needed intensive care and two ventilators, due to inhalation of superheated gases. The rest suffered from slight to very severe burns to their upper extremities and the hospital staff expect them to “get ahead”.
On Sunday morning, authorities reported that three of the firefighters had already been discharged, while eight were still hospitalized. Two of those admitted were in critical condition but stable.
The incident caused a “distress” call, which required for two hours more than 230 firefighters to put out the fire, as reported by the Fire Department.
The teams continued to search for evidence in the affected area this Sunday morning.
Firefighters control dangerous fire after explosion in downtown Los Angeles
