Photos courtesy of the Long Beach Fire Department
9:06am | Seventeen residents of a downtown Long Beach hotel are receiving assistance from the Red Cross after a fire badly damaged the two-story structure near 5th Street and Pacific.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The Long Beach Fire Department responded to the call at 12:37am Tuesday morning and found the building heavily spewing smoke and flames, coming specifically from the second story. Firefighters entered the building, fighting the blaze with hoses while others took to their ladders and cut ventilation holes in the roof.
In their search for occupants, firefighters came across an elderly man in a room adjacent to the fire and had him rushed to the hospital after suffering severe smoke inhalation.
The American Red Cross has opened a shelter for displaced victims of the fire at 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Seventeen people have registered at the shelter and ten Red Cross volunteers are providing them with warm meals and shelter. Learn more at redcross.org.
