A significant fire erupted at a vehicle storage yard in South Los Angeles early Monday morning, involving a pair of compressed natural gas fuel trucks. The blaze, which was first reported at 03:26 AM at 11512 S Vermont Avenue, prompted a response from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) and the nearby Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD). According to LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey, firefighters fought defensively to control the outside debris fire that threatened nearby vehicles.
The fire led to a temporary shutdown of all lanes of the westbound 105 Freeway, creating a significant disruption for morning commuters; the freeway was closed for more than an hour while emergency operations were underway. Officials struggled to contain the flames, which took nearly two hours to extinguish by nearly 60 firefighters, as detailed by NBC Los Angeles. Remarkably, no injuries were reported from the incident.
More detailed information came from an updated LAFD alert, which stated that "Though the bulk of flames have been curtailed, more than 58 LAFD Firefighters continue to extinguish hotspots of an outside fire that extended to fiercely involve a trio of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueled trucks." The ongoing efforts necessitated the continued closure of the westbound Vermont Avenue off-ramp despite the reopening of the main lanes of the 105 Freeway.
