What appeared to be a high-rise fire near 5th and Bixel streets in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday night caught the attention of a group of young people, who quickly began recording the disaster unfolding before them to share on social media.
The video was livestreamed on Citizen, a public safety mobile app, which was then posted on the Citizen app’s social media account on X. The video shows smoke billowing from the top of the building and an orange glow. The video was posted under the headline “#Breaking News Fire in Downtown High-Rise. Flames and smoke are billowing from the top floors of the structure. Avoid the area.”
“You can smell it,” a woman from the group can be heard saying. “You can smell, like, the paper burning inside… I smell burnt paper.”
“This is crazy,” the young man recording says.
But the fire was not a real disaster, the group soon learned. It was Hollywood make …