The vacant two-storey home, damaged by several fires, was demolished Thursday after firefighters responded to the facility’s latest fire.
The fire was reported Thursday morning at 1744 North Wilton Place between Hollywood Boulevard and Franklin Avenue. According to the LAFD, the firefighters put out the flames in about 84 minutes.
No injuries have been reported.
Details about how the fire began were not available immediately.
The Building and Safety department painted the house red after the fire and deemed it unsafe to enter. LAFD brought heavy equipment, including cat excavators, to demolish the building.
Neighbors said they believe the squatters are blamed on the early morning fire. They said some people who lived in a nearby homeless camp had moved into their homes.
“Previously, it was an encampment and when they all burned a lot of those people, we believe, we finally got to these buildings in Wilton,” resident Levi Freeman said.
Another resident said people who were squatting at home had moved, but they quickly returned.
“They put… a new fence. Homeless people will go back to the same night and cut the fence,” Nathaniel Siri said.
Neighbors said there were other vacant homes nearby that caused problems in the neighborhood.
A spokesman for Councillor Hugh Soto-Martinez provided a statement to the NBCLA.
“Now until the property is officially declared as a ‘public nuisance’, the city is only allowed to access private property during immediate public safety emergencies, such as an aggressively burning fire,” said Nick Burns Batista, spokesman for the Council’s 13th District. “As a city, we need to speed up the process to fix this broken system and declare dangerous properties a public nuisance, so we can act faster and keep our communities safe.”
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