Investigators find marijuana at home destroyed in West Hills blaze

Los Angeles police narcotics officers on Sunday searched a West Hills home destroyed in a fire overnight after firefighters found marijuana at the site, authorities said.

The fire in the 6500 block of Ellenview Avenue was reported at 9:12 p.m. Saturday and took 80 firefighters about 90 minutes to put out, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

Blocks away, two men were found with burn injuries. They were taken to a local hospital where they remain in stable condition, said Sgt. Gerg Houser of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officers with the LAPD’s Narcotics Division were called to the scene after fire crews found drugs and drug paraphernalia in the home, Houser said.

“They got a search warrant to search the location and they did recover a small amount of evidence,” he said.

Fire investigators were still on scene Sunday morning to determine the cause of the fire. Part of that investigation will be determining whether the property was a marijuana grow house.

“It’s not common, but we get several of them throughout the whole San Fernando Valley on a yearly basis now -- several per year,” Houser said. “They’ve got chemicals and such that are dangerous.”

A damage estimate was not immediately available, but fire officials said the home was destroyed.

“There’s charred remnants of the home,” Humphrey said.

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