The former Morrison Hotel, made famous by The Doors and their 1970 album of the same name, was significantly damaged by a fire in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday.
LOS ANGELES — The former Morrison Hotel, made famous by The Doors and their 1970 album of the same name, was significantly damaged Thursday by a fire that broke out in downtown Los Angeles.
The four-story building, which has been vacant for more than a decade, burned for nearly two hours before more than 100 firefighters brought the flames under control, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The Morrison Hotel was on the cover of The Doors’ fifth album. Celebrated music photographer Henry Diltz captured the image in 1969 and said years later that it took a bit of trickery to pull it off.
A hotel clerk told the band they weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but when the clerk stepped away, the group ran into the lobby and Diltz quickly got the photo looking through the window, with legendary frontman Jim Morrison in the middle.
The album was seen as a return to their roots for The Doors, following Morrison’s onstage arrest during a concert in Miami, during which he was convicted of indecent exposure and blasphemy.
Morrison and The Doors would release one final album, ‘LA Woman’, before he was found dead in a bathtub in Paris on July 3, 1971.
Los Angeles firefighters who first arrived at the fire Thursday found heavy flames on the top floor of the building.
Several people inside the building escaped without injury, including three people rescued by firefighters from the third floor, according to the department. The building’s roof collapsed, making its structural integrity questionable, the department said.
In recent years the building was used as a training ground for firefighters.