Fire Causes $700,000 in Damage to Sofa Warehouse

An explosive fire raced through a sofa warehouse and showroom in Sepulveda, causing $700,000 in damage and slightly injuring four firefighters, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported Wednesday.

The cause of the blaze at Krause’s Sofa Factory was not known, Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells said.

The fire broke out at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday in the 100- by 250-foot, one-story building, Wells said. About 70 firefighters controlled the fire in 40 minutes.

Four firefighters suffered minor injuries, including one who was struck by a fire hose that broke loose when an explosion of flames ripped through a roll-down garage door, officials said.

The explosion, an apparent result of an air draft or buildup of gases in the building, caused a fireball to shoot through the garage door and more than 50 feet across Orion Avenue, officials said. The blast shoved a burning sofa out of the warehouse into the street, shattered windows and dislodged ladders on one fire truck parked nearby and blackened the paint on another.

A fire hose attached to one of the trucks broke loose and struck the firefighter in the leg, the only injury caused by the blast, officials said. He was treated and released from Northridge Hospital Medical Center, along with another firefighter who suffered minor cuts. Two others were treated at the scene by paramedics for soot in their eyes.

Wells said $500,000 of the damage was to the contents of the 10-year-old business. Manager Ryan Gierach said there had been about 200 sofas in the building.

“There is not a stick of furniture left,” Gierach said after surveying the damage inside the building.