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A building well-known to fans of classic rock was destroyed Thursday, when a massive fire tore through the downtown Los Angeles building made famous by The Doors album Morrison Hotel<\/em><\/a>. The four-story structure at South Hope Street had been vacant for 15 years, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a written statement, but had been used as a shelter by people experiencing homelessness. It remains unclear if all occupants were safely evacuated during the blaze.<\/p>\n The structure, built in 1914, bore a front window that read \u201cMorrison Hotel\u201d in the late 1960s and beyond, making it an obvious draw for the Jim Morrison-fronted band. In his 1991 memoir<\/a> Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and The Doors<\/em>, Doors drummer John Paul Densmore<\/strong> wrote that photographer Henry Diltz<\/strong> stood with the band\u2014which was already internationally famous<\/a> following the release of hits such as<\/a> \u201cLight My Fire,\u201d \u201cStrange Days,\u201d and \u201cThe End\u201d\u2014outside the structure on a 1969 afternoon until the front desk clerk was called away from the desk. At that point, the band hopped into the window and struck a pose behind a sign that read \u201cRooms from $2.50.\u201d<\/p>\n The photo was used on the eponymous record\u2019s cover the following year. The lauded 1970 release contained well-known songs such as \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d and \u201cPeace Frog.\u201d Morrison died<\/a> the following year, on July 3, 1971.<\/p>\n Even in the Morrison Hotel<\/em> era, the building\u2019s best days<\/a> were behind it. \u201cIt was a great old wooden building with many small rooms upstairs where transients and drinkers used to sleep it off on a cot,\u201d Diltz wrote in a Facebook post<\/a> on Friday. In the decades since, the building had been red-tagged (that is, marked as too dangerous to inhabit) by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.<\/p>\n In recent years, it has been used mainly as a training building for the LAFD. It was purchased in 2022 by Los Angeles nonprofit the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which had intended to convert the building into affordable housing. Mark Dyer<\/strong>, the Foundation\u2019s vice president of operations, tells the New York Times<\/em><\/a> that about 25 people had taken shelter in the building at the time of the fire. \u201cIt\u2019s probably a complete loss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to the LAFD, reports of the blaze were called in mid-morning on December 26, prompting over 100 firefighters to respond to the scene. It took 90 minutes to get the blaze under control. Video from the location<\/a> shows flames shooting from several windows, as well as heavy, dark smoke.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hoped that most of the folks who had gathered in the building escaped safely, and LAFD says they rescued three from the blaze. The fire was already too advanced for firefighters \u201cto confirm the fourth floor was evacuated prior to arrival,\u201d a spokesperson says, so \u201cHuman Remains Detection K9s will be used, once safe, to search the structure\u201d to determine if there were any casualties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n