Written by AARON CASTREJON CityWatch Editor SAN GABRIEL - Investigators have yet to determine a cause for a fire that gutted the historic San Gabriel Mission July 11. Investigators began to thoroughly comb through the destruction four days after the fire destroyed the entire roof and much of the interior of the nearly 250-year-old church. Engineers and structural specialists had to stabilize debris before allowing entrance, according to the City of San Gabriel. The Verdugo Arson Task Force, the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives worked together to investigate the fire, according to the City of San Gabriel.
It took firefighters more than two hours to knock down the massive blaze. Firefighters responded to investigate a fire alarm at the mission, 428 S. Mission Dr., at 4:24 a.m. July 11. Firefighters attempted to make an aggressive attack on the flames from inside of the mission, but falling debris forced firefighters to go into defensive mode, according to Captain Antonio Negrete of the San Gabriel Fire Department. No firefighters were injured. 50 firefighters and 12 fire companies from surrounding cities worked to extinguish the flames. Firefighters declared the flames knocked down at 6:48 a.m., Negrete told SGV CityWatch. |
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