PHOTOS: Firefighters battled a massive blaze that broke out near a youth sports complex in Encino Thursday morning. Los Angeles fire crews responded to a fire burning in an underpass/drainage tunnel in the Sepulveda Basin near the Encino-Sherman Oaks Girls Softball field at around 5:41 a.m.
Crews arrived to find heavy smoke emanating from deep within the concrete tunnel that was located underneath a parking lot. Investigators said the fire was believed to have been started by transients who set up an encampment inside the tunnel.
“At that point, we realized that there were creosote-soaked timber supporting this bridge overpass part, so we called out our robot to put out the fire,” LAFD Battalion Chief Robert Barna explained. Firefighters brought in the Thermite RS3 fire robot, built to reach dangerous spaces that crews can’t safely access.
