LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Eight people, including one person in grave condition, were treated after a fire erupted in a high-rise apartment building in U.S. city of Los Angeles on Wednesday, authorities said.
A total of 335 firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the blaze on the ground and in the air in the morning, assisted by multiple local agencies, said the Fire Department.
Flames broke out on the sixth floor of the 25-story Barrington Plaza in the Wilshire Boulevard. The wind-driven fire was extinguished one hour and 19 minutes after it was first reported, according to the Fire Department.
Eight people were treated as a result of the fire. Most suffered from smoke exposure. Six of them were transported to an area hospital, including one person who was in grave condition, said the Fire Department in a release.
There had been some unconfirmed reports that people might have jumped out of the building to escape the flames. Earlier television video showed one man was clinging to the ledge of a window of the high-rise apartment building.
"Despite reliable eyewitnesses vividly describing one or more persons 'jumping' from the 6th floor, we surmise that such person/s may have appeared, disappeared (returned briefly inside) and returned to the building's exterior in an area heavily charged with smoke, leading the eyewitnesses to believe they had jumped rather than temporarily retreated into the building," said the agency.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
