Firefighters knocked down a fire at 11763 W. Hamlin Street in North Hollywood on Tuesday, and paramedics transported one civilian patient to a hospital.
The fire was reported at 11763 W. Hamlin St., according to the LAFD
, which issued an alert. Firefighters arrived to find smoke showing, the department said.
The building at that address is a two-story, eight-unit apartment structure built in 1963, with six one-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units spanning 6,467 square feet on an 8,181-square-foot lot, per Realtor.com. It is a mid-century, multi-family building.
Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Hazards
Damaged lithium-ion batteries pose specific dangers. The LAFD responds to an average of roughly 45 lithium-ion battery fires every week across the city, a volume that has pushed department officials to seek stricter municipal certification rules for battery-powered devices, according to CTIF.org.
The concern centers on thermal runaway: when lithium-ion batteries fail, they can release toxic smoke containing hydrogen fluoride gas, which forms hydrofluoric acid on contact with moisture in human lungs or skin, per the same source. That risk requires specialized gas monitoring tools and is also why fire service protocol bars moving a compromised battery or mobility device via stairs or elevators in multi-story buildings unless it has been fully overpacked and secured by HazMat technicians, according to the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
The Hamlin Street call included Fire Station 89.
A Growing Pattern Across the Valley
Lankershim Boulevard, the commercial corridor just east of the fire scene, is a high-volume arterial subject to Los Angeles Department of Transportation safety planning, as Hoodline has previously reported.
The Hamlin Street response echoes a similar call at 6340 N. Colbath Avenue in neighboring Valley Glen, where 49 firefighters responded to a fire in a single-family dwelling that was extinguished within 22 minutes.
The condition of the hospitalized patient and the exact cause of the fire had not been released.
