any of these near you?
http://twitter.com/LAFD

Yes – multiple reports on Twitter, all seem to indicate these LAFD reports:

2 hours ago: *COLLAPSED STRUCTURE* 1625 S. Westmoreland Av.; MAP 634-A5; FS 13; Reported structure collapse. Units on scene assessing damage & possible injuries. No add’l info @ this time.; Ch:7,12 @ -d’Lisa Davies###

50 minutes ago: *UPDATE: 1625 S. Westmoreland Av.* 3 occupants extricated from rubble. 1 female, 36, tsp’d to area hosp w/ minor inj’s. Bldg condemned by Bldg & Safety Insp. Red Cross to assist. – d’Lisa Davies###

Gas explosion – story from KCAL:

http://cbs2.com/local/Building.Collapse.Apartment.2.911637.html

Whoa, I heard that all the way out in Long Beach. I assumed it was a car backfiring or something.

Love him or hate him, Mike Davis (in “The Ecology of Fear,” I think) writes pretty directly about the ridiculous level of code-violating slumlord-owned deathtrap apartment buildings that make up a good part of the housing across that section — one of the most densely populated — of the city.