Fire hits historic Los Angeles Poor Farm buildings

Several abandoned buildings at the historic Los Angeles County Poor Farm were destroyed by fire Wednesday night.

At least five agencies responded and the fire was contained in buildings on the vacant south campus of the county's public rehabilitation hospital, the Downey fire department announced early Thursday.

Responding units found a single-story, abandoned commercial building engulfed in flames on the south side of the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, once known as the Los Angeles County Poor Farm.

The sprawling campus opened in 1888 as the Los Angeles County Poor Farm, offering ranch work and medical care to disabled, ill, elderly and homeless people.

It was eventually renamed Rancho Los Amigos and operated as a hospital for chronic illnesses until the 1950s, when a polio epidemic turned it into a rehabilitation center.