Woman ‘fighting for life,’ dog dead after fire at Hollywood strip mall

A woman was fighting for her life Wednesday after firefighters pulled her from a strip mall that was in flames in East Hollywood, fire officials said.

The woman did not have a pulse and was not breathing when firefighters found her in the back of an “apparel shop,” said Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. She was taken to a hospital, where she was in grave condition and “fighting for her life,” he said.

Firefighters also found the remains of a dog in the store, he said.

The blaze was confined to that shop and a psychic’s business, but smoke and heat swept through the entire strip mall in the 4800 block of Santa Monica Boulevard.

It took 84 firefighters about 40 minutes to put out the blaze in the pre-1933 building.

After extinguishing the fire, firefighters found the dog and what appeared to be makeshift living quarters inside the shop, Humphrey said.

Investigators were still looking into what sparked the blaze and whether the woman was living inside the store, which is not permitted in Los Angeles, he said.

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