It started as what seemed like a fairly routine incident.
An L.A. County fire engine from Station 173 in Inglewood saw smoke Monday and headed in its direction. The engine was the first on the scene of a car fire that threatened an apartment building within L.A. city limits, according to county fire dispatch radio recordings.
The county firefighters requested a “full city response” over the radio since the fire was in L.A. Fire Department (aka city) territory. They also started to fight the fire themselves.
Firefighters from the city and additional firefighters from the county arrived on scene, according to radio recordings.
A few moments later, city firefighters reported again over the radio.
“We have an issue out here,” one of them said. “We do have one member from county and one member from our department in a physical altercation right now.”
City and county firefighters were still working on putting out the fire when the fight broke out, according to radio dispatch recordings reviewed by LAist. At some point, county firefighters requested a representative from the department to come to the scene.
Multiple sources familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to talk to the media, told LAist that the fight began over a dispute about access to water from a nearby fire hydrant and that punches were thrown.
A legacy of tension
“ The rivalry with L.A. County and L.A. City has always been there,“ Tony Ortiz told LAist.
Ortiz was an LAFD fire captain who served in the department for 33 years before retiring in 2023.
“ L.A. County has always had a history of being really good at brush fires,” Ortiz said. “But as far as structure fires, highrise and everything like that, city's always been the best.”
Having worked at several stations that border L.A. County, he said he had heard of words being exchanged and maybe some shoving between city and county firefighters in the past, but never a full-blown fight.
Ortiz said that being at busy stations also puts firefighters on edge and can cause tensions to run high.
The three LAFD stations that sent fire engines to respond to the fire on Monday are among the top 10 busiest stations in the city so far in 2025, according to an LAist analysis of emergency response data.
Those were Station 33, Station 57 and Station 64 — which is the second busiest in the city.
At the scene of the fire
Evelyn Douglas, 79, had left her home in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood of South L.A. to go shopping shortly before 10 a.m. Monday. She’d barely arrived when her neighbors called with the bad news: her apartment was on fire.
When she returned, Douglas told LAist there were so many firefighters and police officers around the building that she couldn’t see what was happening to her home.
She said she learned that a fire had been set under a car parked in the carport directly beneath her apartment. And she said she believes the fire was started intentionally.
“It had been done once before and I put it out," Douglas said of the previous incident. "I happened to come downstairs and saw it blazing, and I took my water hose and put it out. Three or four days later, here, my house is on fire.”
Douglas said she heard about the fight from neighbors who watched it go down, but was just thankful to the firefighters for putting out the fire before it destroyed her home.
What’s next
It's unclear what disciplinary actions, if any, will be taken by either department.
When LAist asked for comment about the fight, an LAFD representative said the incident is under investigation and they would not comment on “any matters that remain under active review.”
In response to a public records request, a spokesperson for L.A. County Fire Department told LAist, “Internal communications about the altercation concerns a personnel matter so there will be no records produced for that request.”
