BALDWIN VILLAGE (CBSLA.com) — A woman in her 60s was killed early Wednesday morning in an apartment fire in the Crenshaw District, officials said.
The fire was first reported just after 2 a..m. in the 3900 block of Ursula Avenue, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
More than 40 firefighters responded to the blaze which was contained to one ground-floor unit and was knocked down in 13 minutes.
“They preformed a routine search of the premises and they came across, sadly, an elderly female in the living room area that was determined dead on the scene,” spokesman Erik Scott said.
Officials initially thought the fire was suspicious in nature and called out arson investigators.
“They’ve been able to work with the Los Angeles Police Department, rule out the possibilities of this being a criminal fire. They are treating it as an accidental fire,” Cpt. Jaime Moore said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation, however, neighbors said the victim smoked.
“Our investigators are looking at smoking, candles, other heating elements . . . so all of these things are being take into consideration in terms of a cause,” Moore added.
Damage estimated were valued at $12,000.
