Fire Damages More Than 100 Storage Units

LONG BEACH, CA – Firefighters from the Long Beach Fire Department and other agencies Monday battled a third-alarm fire that damaged more than 100 units at a storage facility, authorities said.

The blaze was reported at 11:50 p.m. Sunday at the Extra Space Storage facility in the 2000 block of West Wardlow Road, said Long Beach Firefighter Jake Heflin. By about 4:15 a.m. the bulk of the flames had been extinguished, and salvage and overhaul operations were underway, as firefighters poured water on the rubble.

"There is a lot of overhaul to do," Heflin told City News Service after daybreak. "There is no official knockdown time. We will be here awhile."

One firefighter suffered a shoulder injury while battling the blaze and was treated at a hospital and released, Heflin said.

Arriving firefighters reported heavy fire showing from multiple storage units, Heflin said. At 12:10 a.m. they decided to carry out defensive operations -- battling the blaze from the interior -- to protect surrounding structures while training water on the flames.

They called for additional firefighters, making it a third-alarm assignment at 12:17 a.m., Heflin said, with more than 75 firefighters from Long Beach, Los Angeles County and other area departments either working on the fire or staffing vacant fire stations.

Heflin said all the materials being stored constituted "an extra fuel load" feeding the blaze.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, and arson investigators were on the scene.

City News Service; Image via Shutterstock