A young girl was found not breathing in a stairwell of a smoke-filled West Los Angeles high-rise and was taken to a hospital with four other injured people, officials said Friday.
The child, whose age and name were not released, was found on the 23rd-floor stairway of the 25-story building in the 11700 block of Wilshire Boulevard, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Capt. Jaime Moore.
The girl was with two other people, but it was unclear whether they were related, he said.
The four others hospitalized mainly suffered respiratory distress and one had chest pains, Moore said. Three firefighters were treated for minor burns.
The building, called Barrington Plaza, was declared off-limits to its estimated 700 residents. A Red Cross evacuation center was opened at nearby University High School.