As USC fans drove home victorious on Saturday, another Angeleno became unhoused as the smell of burning plastic and metal inundated the chilly South Central night air.
The incident was first broadcast on the Citizen app, which showed fire and smoke billowing from the RV. At the time of the fire, the RV was unoccupied, and no injuries were reported.
The RV — now reduced to a mangled metal frame blackened from the heat — was drenched in water and foam. The fire created an electrical hazard for the two neighboring RVs parked on Olive Street. The fire caused telephone wires to fall and hang from the sky, the ends laying on the cold, gray concrete. Further west down West 30th Street additional RVs were parked but were not directly affected by the fire.
Police responded to the fire at approximately 9:30 p.m., according to Officer Dominguez, who declined to give his first name. Another LAPD patrol unit observed the flame and called in additional support from the fire department. LAFD Station 15 responded, and finished fighting the blaze at 11 p.m.
The RV, parked across the street from John Adams Middle School, left a large black smoke scar on the building behind it. After the fire department finished fighting the fire, mounds of Class A foam, fire deterrent used for building and wildfires, covered the RV and spread into the surrounding street. Moisture filled the air as the curb, street, RV and surrounding areas were drenched in water.
Firefighters have fought numerous RV fires across the county in November. On November 3, five RVs were destroyed in a fire in Wilmington, as wind whisked the blaze through the Pacific RV Park. Then a day later on November 4, an RV in the parking lot of a Bargain World 99 Cent Store caught fire in Panorama City. And on November 19 over 80 firefighters responded to a blaze in Garden Grove. No injuries have been reported from any of these fires.
These RVs join the 2,000 RVs that burn annually in the United States.
Officers at the scene said many RV fires are caused by the production of methamphetamine, but the cause of this fire remains under investigation.