At least one person was killed and fifteen people injured when a small homemade plane collided into the rooftop of a furniture warehouse in Southern California on Thursday.
The plane came down close to Fullerton Municipal Airport, resulting in the evacuation of more than 100 people from inside the warehouse of a furniture manufacturing company in the Orange County city of Fullerton.
Police and fire authorities arrived on scene after receiving a report at 2:09pm PST about the crash.
Firefighters could be seen battling the blaze while evacuating hundreds from surrounding businesses.
Police said the plane was a home-built Van’s Aircraft RV-10 with seating for four people.
The pilot looked to be making an attempt to return to the airport after takeoff, police said, although it was not clear how many people were onboard the plane.
A thick plume of black smoke could be seen from miles around including from nearby Fullerton Airport.
Video footage from KABC shows white smoke coming from the top of a large building.
Eleven people were injured when a small plane collided into the rooftop of a commercial building in Southern California on Thursday, close to Fullerton Municipal Airport
Eleven people were injured when a small plane collided into the rooftop of a commercial building in Southern California on Thursday, police said. This photo was taken from nearby Fullerton airport
A woman is carried on a stretcher near the site of a plane crash in Fullerton, California
Witnesses said they heard loud explosion resulting ina large emergency response at Michael Nicholas Design Factory, a home goods store.
‘People are just shaken over the situation,’ said Mark Anderson to NBC4. ‘It was just a large boom, and then one of the people went out and said, “Oh my gosh, the building’s on fire.”‘
The plane crashed near the Fullerton Municipal Airport, a general aviation airport in Orange County that is about 6 miles from Disneyland. It has one runway and one heliport.
Metrolink, a regional train line, is nearby, and flanks a residential neighborhood and commercial warehouse buildings.
Fullerton is a city of about 140,000 people some 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Police and fire authorities arrived on scene and battled the blaze while evacuating surrounding businesses
A plume of thick black smoke rose into the air above the scene and was visible for miles
Emergency vehicles are lined up near the site of the plane crash on Thursday
Firefighters stage outside a building where the plane crash occurred