On Friday, March 3, 2006 at 4:55 a.m., 15 companies of Los Angeles firefighters, the fire chief, one deputy chief, four LAFD rescue
ambulances, four arson units, one urban search and rescue unit, one hazardous materials team, one EMS battalion captain, three battalion
chief officer command teams, and one division chief officer command team, all under the direction of Assistant Chief John Ware responded to a greater alarm structure fire with fatalities at 525 South Ardmore Avenue in the Hancock Park/Wilshire Center area.
First units on the scene reported a three story apartment building over garages with fire and heavy smoke showing from one unit on the third floor. Firefighters using handlines aggressively attacked the fire and extinguished the fire twenty-eight minutes. During the initial search and rescue phase of the third floor, three bodies were discovered in the involved apartment and declared dead on the scene. No other injuries were reported.
Over one-hundred Firefighters were able to confine the fire to one unit on the third floor of the one-hundred and seventy-five unit apartment building. Several other units did sustain smoke and water damage during the firefighting operations. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation and the fire damage is still being tabulated.