Officials probe blast that injured 12 L.A. firefighters

LOS ANGELES — Police and fire investigators launched a criminal probe Sunday into the cause of an explosion at a hash oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles that sent firefighters running for their lives.

Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s major crimes division were working with the city Fire Department’s arson investigators to determine what might have sparked the blast that shot a ball of flames out of the building Saturday night and scorched a fire truck across the street, police spokesman Josh Rubenstein said.

“We’re in the very early stages of the investigation … to understand what happened and figure out how to move forward,” he said.

The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting local fire investigators, an agency spokeswoman said.

The blast injured a dozen firefighters including some who ran out onto sidewalks, where they tore off their burning protective equipment including melted helmets, officials said.

“The was one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott.

Three firefighters were released after spending the night in the hospital, fire department spokesman Nicholas Prange said Sunday. Of the eight that remained hospitalized, two were in critical but stable condition, he said. Officials initially announced that 11 firefighters were injured but Prange said a 12th was treated and released for a minor injury.

All were expected to survive.

“The good news is everybody’s going to make it,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a late Saturday news conference outside the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center where all the injured were treated.

Scott said the building was a warehouse for SmokeTokes, which he described as a supplier for makers of “butane honey oil.” Butane is an odorless gas that easily ignites, and it’s used in the process to extract the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis to create a highly potent concentrate also known as hash oil. The oil is used in vape pens, edibles, waxes and other products.

A call to SmokeTokes went unanswered on Sunday and the company’s voicemail was full.

Prange, the LAFD spokesman, said carbon dioxide and butane canisters were found inside the building but that it was still not clear what caused the blast.

In 2016, there was another major fire at a business called Smoke Tokes at a nearby address. It was reported at the time that it took more than 160 firefighters to put out the blaze and that they encountered pressurized gas cylinders that exploded in the fire.

No one was injured in the fire and it was unclear whether that business and the one that burned Saturday were connected.