A major explosion in South Los Angeles damaged buildings and injured at least nine people, including police officers, as a bomb squad was in the process of seizing more than 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks in the area.
The blast damaged cars in a residential neighborhood and left debris on the streets, footage on social media showed. A truck that was apparently being used to collect the fireworks was also severely damaged, video showed.
The Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter that at the time of the explosion, its bomb squad officers had been handling thousands of pounds of fireworks in the area of 27th Street and San Pedro Street.
Some of the fireworks seized at the South L.A. home were deemed unstable and and placed inside a bomb squad truck. The truck exploded this evening.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
“Some of the fireworks were being stored in our Bomb Squad trailer as a precautionary measure. Unknown at this time what caused an explosion,” the tweet said.
Capt. Stacy Spell, an LAPD spokesman, said that the department’s first priorities were “evacuation and rendering the area safe.” Spell said LAPD officers were among the injured, but he did not yet know the extent of their injuries.
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Margaret Stewart said she could not comment yet on the condition of those who were injured but said that she expected the number of injured to increase as officials canvass the area.
“We continue to encounter more patients,” she said.
About noon, the department received an anonymous call about the fireworks on the 700 block of East 27th Street, Officer Tony Im said.
Officers found several thousand pounds of fireworks and other improvised explosive devices, Im said. The fireworks were to be put in storage, and officials had planned to explode the improvised devices at the scene because they were too unstable to move.
KTTV-TV Channel 11 reported that a bomb squad truck carrying the devices had exploded unexpectedly.
But it was unclear what caused the blast nor exactly what kind of explosive ignited.