A constructing well-known to followers of traditional rock was destroyed Thursday, when a large fireplace tore by way of the downtown Los Angeles constructing made well-known by The Doors album Morrison Hotel. The four-story construction at South Hope Street had been vacant for 15 years, the Los Angeles Fire Department stated in a written assertion, however had been used as a shelter by individuals experiencing homelessness. It stays unclear if all occupants had been safely evacuated in the course of the blaze.
The construction, inbuilt 1914, bore a entrance window that learn “Morrison Hotel” within the late Sixties and past, making it an apparent draw for the Jim Morrison-fronted band. In his 1991 memoir Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and The Doors, Doors drummer John Paul Densmore wrote that photographer Henry Diltz stood with the band—which was already internationally well-known following the discharge of hits similar to “Light My Fire,” “Strange Days,” and “The End”—exterior the construction on a 1969 afternoon till the entrance desk clerk was referred to as away from the desk. At that time, the band hopped into the window and struck a pose behind an indication that learn “Rooms from $2.50.”
The photograph was used on the eponymous file’s cowl the next 12 months. The lauded 1970 launch contained well-known songs similar to “Roadhouse Blues” and “Peace Frog.” Morrison died the next 12 months, on July 3, 1971.
Even within the Morrison Hotel period, the constructing’s finest days had been behind it. “It was a great old wooden building with many small rooms upstairs where transients and drinkers used to sleep it off on a cot,” Diltz wrote in a Facebook submit on Friday. In the many years since, the constructing had been red-tagged (that’s, marked as too harmful to inhabit) by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.
In latest years, it has been used primarily as a coaching constructing for the LAFD. It was bought in 2022 by Los Angeles nonprofit the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which had supposed to transform the constructing into inexpensive housing. Mark Dyer, the Foundation’s vice chairman of operations, tells the New York Times that about 25 individuals had taken shelter within the constructing on the time of the hearth. “It’s probably a complete loss,” he stated.
According to the LAFD, studies of the blaze had been referred to as in mid-morning on December 26, prompting over 100 firefighters to answer the scene. It took 90 minutes to get the blaze below management. Video from the situation reveals flames capturing from a number of home windows, in addition to heavy, darkish smoke.
It’s hoped that many of the people who had gathered within the constructing escaped safely, and LAFD says they rescued three from the blaze. The fireplace was already too superior for firefighters “to confirm the fourth floor was evacuated prior to arrival,” a spokesperson says, so “Human Remains Detection K9s will be used, once safe, to search the structure” to find out if there have been any casualties.