Fire at teh Broadway Trade Center! (Yesterday, yes I am a lazy poster)

I could smell the smoke on Seventh and Spring. I suppose I should have rushed on over to get dramatic shots of flames leaping from windows, etc, but I wanted to get to the bank before it closed. Journalistic instinct? I has none.

By the time I got there, everyone was all set up and the really dramatic stuff was all over. The focus seemed to be on the building next to the one with the mall, which is styled to look like the same building, and maybe it is the same building, as the strobes and klaxon were running full blast on both sides.

The clean-up crew going in with shovels and what looked like giant squeegies.

Of course, Los Angeles has an unusually good-looking and photogenic fire department. Why would one expect anything else?

Not everyone felt the need to evacuate.

Triangle Shirtwaist? What is that?

Of course, business as usual inside the BTC during the "emergency".

Meanwhile, on Broadway right in front of the aforementioned Shoppers Paradise, a movie crew was taking advantage of our beautiful traffic congestion and the evening's lovely gloom.

For all Downtown's a stage, and we are merely extras...

Update: Those timely kids over at Angelenic reported (on the actual day that it happened!) that the fire started on the ninth floor, and involved three floors total. Woot!