Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s daughter Aimee was among those who escaped a Hollywood recording studio fire that killed a 26-year-old music producer, Sharon Osbourne and others who work in the space said.
Aimee Osbourne's producer also escaped the blaze. The fire erupted late Thursday afternoon in a two-story commercial building, and it took 78 firefighters more than 50 minutes to extinguish the flames, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said in a statement.
Two people reported respiratory symptoms related to smoke exposure and were evaluated at the scene, but both declined to be taken to a hospital, Scott said.
“Sadly, one person was found dead inside, as firefighters searched the structure,” Scott said, adding that no firefighters were injured and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Authorities had not released the identity of the person killed, but friends and others worked in the building told he was 26-year-old Nathan Avery Edwards, who recorded, produced and mixed music under the name Avery Drift.
One of the two survivors was the elder daughter of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne said in an Instagram post.
Aimee Osbourne, 38, and a producer she was working with were “the lucky two that made it out alive,” Sharon Osbourne said, without identifying the producer.
“It is utterly heartbreaking that someone lost their life today in this fire & we are sending our prayers to this person & their family,” Osbourne said, adding “our prayers go out to the family and friends of the person that lost their life to this senseless fire.”
Aimee Osbourne is a singer who releases electronic pop music under the name ARO, her initials. She did not take part in the Osbourne family’s reality show as her younger siblings Kelly and Jack Osbourne did. Ozzy Osbourne also has three older children from a previous relationship.
Jonathan Wellman, who rented a recording space in the building down the hall from Edwards, said he was “a talented young artist, producer, engineer.”
The structure houses several recording and rehearsal studios. Wellman, who was in his studio at the time, said the unit where the fire appears to have started was fully engulfed in flames by the time anyone from the building got to it, and it was impossible to try to put it out.
A hip-hop artist named Maxxamillion said he lost his entire studio and $50,000 worth of equipment.
“I opened the door, I saw smoke coming from across the hall,” he said. “I immediately reached over to grab a jug of water. I threw it at the door, flames bursted. I tried to go back to my room and grab anything I could, but flames were everywhere, and we ran out the building, and that was it.”
People inside said they heard no smoke detectors and saw no sprinklers go off.
“I was my own smoke detector,” Jamal Davis, who was in his recording studio, explained. “I ran to my room and grabbed my stuff and left my door open, trying to call my cats out to follow me.”
He tried to go back in to save his four cats, but the smoke was too thick and he lost them all, Davis said.
It was not immediately clear if the building had any code violations or citations.
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