Body found at site of Eagle Rock house fire

A man’s body was found amid the rubble of an Eagle Rock house destroyed by a fire this week, the Los Angeles Fire Department said Tuesday.

Flames engulfed the 110-year-old, two-story home on Oak Grove Dr. Monday evening and took about two hours of “relentless defensive operations” by more than 100 firefighters to extinguish, fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

Firefighters and a group of urban search and rescue specialists returned Tuesday morning to search through the remains of the house after neighbors and relatives alerted officials that an older man who sometimes lived at the property could not be located, Humphrey said.

The body was located around 9:30 a.m. The person has not yet been identified.

Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman with the department, said the search of the house had to wait until morning because of safety concerns.

“The structure is extremely unstable with a good deal of collapse,” Stewart said. “Trying to do that at night, when you can’t see, is too dangerous.”

The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing, Stewart said.