Arts District Fire Leaves Printmaking Firm Destroyed, but Neighbors Spared

By Ed Fuentes
Published: Wednesday, June 03, 2009, at 05:38PM

Ed Fuentes [Flickr]

Inside 431 S. Hewitt, site of a late night fire on Tuesday.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — "It's a total loss," said LAFD Inspector Lockhart, who was on-site the morning after a late night blaze in the Arts District left a one-story building that housed a printmaking company destroyed. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

120 firefighters contained the blaze at 431 S. Hewitt. The structure housed printmaking and silk screening company Cix Design. The first crews arrived on scene at 10:46pm, and the blaze was reported as knocked down roughly an hour later.

The department's quick response limited damage to the one building. Early responders recognized that the warehouse structure was lost, and went into a defensive position that focused on saving surrounding structures. They succeeded: the business next door sustained no damage despite sharing a steel door with Cix' space.

Hewitt street has become a center of the new Arts District outpost, with the Barker Block condo project on one side and a retail strip that includes Urth Caffe on the other.

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