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Hamsters, reptiles, fish saved from Petco fire in Westchester

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<i>This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.</i>

It’s still too early to estimate the damage to the Petco building … but they saved the hamsters.

Los Angeles firefighters made quick work of a fire at the Petco store in the 8800 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard in Westchester early Wednesday, extinguishing a wall of flames that started chewing through the building’s roof at about 5:15 a.m.

“There are no animal fatalities, we’re happy to admit,” Battalion Chief Armando Hogan told KTLA.

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There were fish, many snakes and more than 15 hamsters inside the store when the blaze started, Hogan said. The blaze was out in less than an hour with more than 100 firefighters aiding in the effort, Hogan added.

The fire began in a the building’s façade between the wall and roof. No firefighters were injured.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

[For the Record 8:41 a.m. PDT April 20: An earlier version of this post and its headline indicated that 12 dogs were rescued from the fire. Fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey later stated “there were no dogs on the premises” at the time of the blaze.]

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @josephserna

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