Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday

A fire and huge explosion at a building near downtown Los Angeles on Saturday evening left 12 firefighters injured, some critically, the fire department said.

Some responders saw a “significant explosion, very high, very wide, rumbling the entire area and firefighters were coming out with obvious damage and burns,” said Capt. Erik Scott, a fire department spokesman.

The blast was so forceful that a fire truck across the street from the building was “blackened.”