Nov. 06--It took 100 firefighters more than two hours to put out a fire that ripped through a commercial building in Boyle Heights early Thursday, burning four businesses inside.
The blaze began after midnight in the 3700 block of Whittier Boulevard in a one-story, cinder block building that housed a cabinet business and general store, Los Angeles fire officials said.
Smoke was already pouring from the building by the time firefighters arrived. Crews cut holes in the roof with chainsaws to ventilate the building as flames began to chew through the building's attic.
About 30 minutes after arriving, a firefighter commander ordered crews to evacuate the roof and inside because of instability. It took another 40 minutes before most of the flames were extinguished from the outside and firefighters could reenter the building, officials said.
Crews had to evacuate the inside of the building a second time before completely extinguishing the blaze by 2:30 a.m., officials said.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation. No firefighters were injured and damage from the blaze had yet to be determined.
It was not immediately known of the building had smoke alarms or a working sprinkler system.
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