Explosion Kills 3, Injures 25 at L.A. Toy Factory

A powerful explosion ripped through a toy factory in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, killing three workers and injuring at least 25 others, authorities said.

The 2:50 p.m. blast on the factory floor at the Imperial Toy Corp. showered debris and glass window fragments across the 2000 block of East 7th Street, and blew a hole through the roof of the building with a boom that could be heard for blocks.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, but it apparently occurred “in or around some kind of sealing machine--a machine that seals the toy packages,” said Alan Masumoto, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Eyewitnesses said the explosion sent screaming workers into the street.

“I looked outside and saw people running out. People were running for their lives,” said Jose Valverde, 31, who works in a warehouse about a block away. “I asked them ‘Que pasa, Que pasa,’ and they would say ‘explosion.’ ”

The factory, at the southwest corner of 7th and Santa Fe streets, makes explosive caps for toy guns, as well as jump ropes, makeup kits and soap bubble toys.

The explosion occurred on the second floor of the plant, which was built in 1913 as Henry Ford’s first California auto plant, and has two-story and five-story sections.

The force of the blast blew out five 10-by-20-foot windows along Santa Fe Street, leaving the street littered with vertical blinds and pieces of the factory roof.

Fire engines, ambulances, television news trucks, helicopters and the LAPD bomb squad converged on the normally quiet industrial area. Paramedics set up triage areas at the scene to treat the victims. Those with serious injuries were taken to County-USC Medical Center and White Memorial Hospital.

The identities of the dead and injured were not immediately available.

Two seriously injured women were breathing with the aid of ventilators at County-USC Medical Center, according to hospital officials.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony was among those who went to the scene. “We’re very anxious to see if anyone needs help,” Mahony said. “We’re here if someone wants us to pray for them.”

Dan Sundstrom, 39, who works at a film studio across Santa Fe Street from the toy factory, described the blast as “a deep percussion--the biggest explosion I’ve ever heard--followed by the sound of material raining down on the street.”

The blast was so strong, Sundstrom said, that “you could feel it hit your body. There were no visible flames but you could see some smoke and you could see daylight through the [blasted out] roof of the building. Three or four people came running out screaming, yelling for ambulances. They said there were a lot of people hurt inside.”

Sundstrom said those emerging from the plant were drenched with water, which he assumed came from fire sprinklers.

Robert Blakeman, owner of the film studio located in a building formerly occupied by Fire Engine Co. 17, said he mistook the blast for an earthquake.

Valverde said he thought the same thing when he heard the blast from his job at a warehouse about a block away. “At first it was so loud I thought it was an earthquake, but then nothing was moving.”

Wednesday’s tragedy was an echo of the worst industrial disaster in Los Angeles’ history, which occurred half a mile away a half-century ago.

On Feb. 20, 1947, a factory explosion killed 17, injured 150 and ripped apart a four-block area in the downtown manufacturing district.

At 9:45 a.m. that day, a vicious chemical blast at the O’Connor Electro-Plating Co. destroyed or damaged 116 buildings and opened a crater 22 feet wide and 6 feet deep. The blast shattered windows across a square-mile area and was felt as far away as Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley.