Dogs looking for ‘human bone or tissue’ get a hit near burned L.A. building, officials say

Two K-9 cadaver dogs detected “human bone or tissue” near a burned down building in North Hills on Tuesday, authorities said.

Two dogs from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department both “hit” in the area of the burned-down structure, which was previously a church, in the 15200 block of West Parthenia Street in North Hills, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“That doesn’t mean a body has been found,” said LAFD public service officer Lyndsey Lantz. “That could mean a bloody handkerchief or a band-aid or even clothing they found under a pile of rubble.”

The area hasn’t been searched yet because of concerns, Lantz said. Crews are trying to demolish the rest of the structure.

On Tuesday, LAFD responded around 5:43 p.m. to a fire in a commercial building, according to an LAFD news release. The blaze was threatening a neighboring four-story apartment building so commanders ordered firefighters to defend it, the department said.

A total of 27 people, including six adults and 21 children, were displaced by the fire, officials said.

Paramedics evaluated three people and two women were hospitalized in fair condition, according to the release.

Three of the 41 units in the apartment building were yellow-tagged, authorities said. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation provided DASH buses as temporary shelter for displaced residents while the city’s housing authority and local chapter of the American Red Cross helped with food and relocation needs.

While firefighters were evacuating residents from the apartment building, other crews were sending water into the burning building, which wasn’t extinguished until the roof collapsed and crews could hit the flames directly. The fire was extinguished in under two hours, according to the release. LAFD Arson and Counter-Terrorism Section is investigating the cause of the fire.

Edward Viramontes told ABC7 that he thinks he knows how the fire started.

Viramontes, who lives in the adjacent apartment building, saw a woman hunched over something two hours before the fire started. He also saw sparks. The person reportedly jumped over the fence after the blaze started.

Viramontes shared the photo he took of the woman with arson investigators.

“I just grabbed all my kids, threw over the stroller, and I just ran out the house,” he told the TV station.