By Nathan Solis and Gregory Yee, Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Authorities are investigating a fire Thursday night at a Hollywood building housing multiple recording studios that left one person dead and two others suffering from smoke inhalation, including a daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
Firefighters responded to a call at the two-story building on West Lexington Avenue about 5:40 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. It took nearly 80 firefighters about an hour to extinguish the blaze.
An unidentified man was found dead on the first floor of the building, officials said. The blaze started on the first floor and spread to parts of the second, L.A. Fire Capt. Erik Scott said.
Two people who escaped the fire were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation but declined to be taken to the hospital, authorities said.
Aimee Osbourne, 38, and her producer were working in the building when the fire broke out and were “the lucky two that made it out alive,” Sharon Osbourne, her mother, posted on Instagram. The producer was not identified in the post.
“It is utterly heartbreaking that someone lost their life today in this fire & we are sending our prayers to this person & their family,” Osbourne wrote.
The building’s layout and interior construction made for a challenging firefight, Scott said, because the recording studios had significant amounts of insulation and double layers of drywall, which concentrated the heat.
“Our firefighters took a beating,” he said.
In her Instagram post, Sharon Osbourne said, “I really hope moving forward that buildings like this are better regulated for fire safety. This building was a creative hub for music in Hollywood, a space that should have been regulated for fire code.”
It’s unclear if there were any fire code violations at the site and the cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to the LAFD.
Several recording studios are listed as occupying the building. Sharon Osbourne said many of the artists who work out of the space lost their equipment.
“Once again, our prayers go out to the family and friends of the person that lost their life to this senseless fire,” Sharon Osbourne said in the Instagram post.