Four Long Beach firefighters were hurt after stored fireworks exploded while they were battling a blaze Friday morning, according to the Long Beach Fire Department.
The fire was reported at 8:23 a.m., when multiple passersby notified the department that a building in the 3900 block of Allin Street was ablaze, according to Fire Capt. Jake Heflin.
Firefighters arrived five minutes later and discovered that the building’s third-floor corner was ablaze.
Less than 15 minutes after that, they located fireworks on the second floor.
That realization coincided with four large explosions and multiple minor blasts in the second-floor unit, Heflin said.
In footage of the blaze posted to Twitter, pops that sound like fireworks can be heard.
At about 9:17 a.m. — nearly an hour after the fire was first reported — two firefighters were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries of second-degree burns and hearing-related issues, Heflin added.
Two more firefighters were also taken to the hospital, one with first-degree burns and another with hearing-related injuries, he said.
The firefighters’ current conditions are unclear, but two people were displaced from the third-floor unit that caught fire.