By Summer Lin
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — The downtown L.A. hotel whose name graced a 1970 Doors album and where the band surreptitiously shot the record’s cover art was badly burned in a fire Thursday morning, according to authorities.
More than 100 firefighters battled the structure fire, categorized as a major emergency incident, for nearly two hours with no injuries reported before the blaze was knocked down around 12:30 p.m., officials said.
Crews placed ground ladders to fire escapes to help evacuate occupants from the building, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department news release.
The four-story building in the 1200 block of South Hope Street was the landmark Morrison Hotel, which was made famous after it was featured on the Doors’ album of the same name in 1970.
Music photographer Henry Diltz took the cover shot in 1969. In a 2020 Facebook post marking the 50th anniversary of the album, he said the group had asked for permission to take a photo at the hotel but were denied. When the hotel clerk was away from the front desk, however, they slipped in and quickly got the well-known shot.
Earlier this year, the hotel was saved from demolition and converted into low-income housing.
“The smoke cloud was so close. We didn’t know where it was coming from,” said Faith Ronning, who lives in an apartment building across from the fire. “People in the neighboring buildings hustled outside with their pets and kids. I’ve never seen a fire that big up close like that.”
The Fire Department’s arson team was at the scene to investigate the cause of the fire.
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