Innosys Beauty Care is a professional hair care brand and used the building not only as a business office but as a warehouse and repackaging facility. Assessing the damage, Santa Fe Springs Fire Chief Michael Crook calls it “a total loss,” according to the Whittier Daily News.
Cook “initially estimated the damage at more than $500,000, but added that officials had yet to tally the value of the products and other contents of the building destroyed by the three-alarm fire,” reports that publication.
Fatal blaze
The fire was a substantial one. Firefighters from three counties—Santa Fe Springs, Downey, and Los Angeles County—responded to the call.
Most Innosys Beauty Care employees had gotten out of the building before the firefighters arrived. One man did not. “Fellow occupants reported they did have a fellow worker inside. They knew he did not get out,” Crook tells the press.
That employee was pronounced dead on the scene. His name has not yet been released. Another employee reportedly suffered minor injuries.
Investigation underway
Only the Innosys Beauty Care IBS Inc facility was affected by the fire. Nearby businesses were not harmed, thanks to the firefighters’ intervention.
Officials are looking into what exactly caused the explosion and fire: “The investigation is ongoing, with the focus being on why there was an explosion, since the warehouse was used as a distribution site and not for manufacturing,” Crook tells the Whittier Daily News.
He believes that plastic packaging in the warehouse fueled the fire and explained that samples of silicone-based hair products will undergo lab analysis. “We are looking into if these products led to the explosion and the intensity of the fire.”
Investigators are also trying to determine more about the employee killed in the fire, like where he was and what he was doing when the initial explosion occurred.