Two people were killed and six others were hospitalized after a speeding vehicle barreled headlong into a building at Washington Avenue and South White Street about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, causing it to burst into flames.
New Orleans police corrected the number of people killed after originally reporting that a third woman who was rescued from the building had died. She reportedly suffered serious burns.
The crash happened after New Orleans police officers attempted to pull over a vehicle at Toledano and South Derbigny streets that matched the description of one that had been stolen, Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said.
But the vehicle refused to stop and sped off. Ferguson said Wednesday night that he believes his officers — part of a proactive patrol task force — then turned off their lights and sirens and stopped following the vehicle, in line with NOPD policy banning high-speed chases in most cases.
A short time later, however, the officers noticed smoke in the air and realized the car had crashed into a building housing a hair salon at 4125 Washington Ave., nearly two miles from Toledano and South Derbigny.
The vehicle had struck other cars as well.
Two people who had been in the vehicle were killed in the wreck. First responders were unable to identify either person on the scene, Emergency Medical Services Director Emily Nichols said.
The crash then ignited a three-alarm fire in the building, site of the Unity One Beauty Supply salon, Fire Superintendent Tim McConnell said.
Ferguson said the officers immediately helped remove "a female and two kids" from the building. Firefighters then pulled a fourth person, a woman with severe burns, from the second floor of the building.
All of those rescued were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
Nichols said two NOPD officers were also sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation, and both were in stable condition. Additionally, a firefighter suffered smoke-related injuries but did not need to be taken to the hospital, authorities said.
The blaze had not been brought under control as of 10:30 p.m.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said a city crime camera in the area recorded footage of the crash as it unfolded. Staffers at the city's Real-Time Crime Center were examining the footage and preparing to turn it over to the NOPD's investigators, she said.
Cantrell said at least one of the women pulled from the building was getting her hair done at the time of the crash and fire.
The salon sits on the edge of Broadmoor, the neighborhood where Cantrell resides and made a name as a civic activist prior to being elected to the City Council and later becoming mayor last year.
Cantrell said the salon, owned by the family of John and Beverly Smith, is an important gathering space in the neighborhood.
One person on the scene, Aqualia Thomas, spoke with WWL-TV and recounted how the salon was full of stylists as well as patrons when a boom suddenly erupted. Flames then engulfed the building.
"It just kind of blew up on them while they were in there working, doing what they normally do," Thomas said.
The niece of the couple that owns the salon, Kioka Hampton, said her aunt and uncle used their shop to help out customers and other community members with things beyond beauty services.
“I was lying in bed and I’m getting phone calls, and I look up and there’s my aunt’s shop" on fire, Hampton told WWL-TV. "It’s just ... so surreal.”
Shortly after the crash, police were helping people on the building's second floor escape with a ladder before firefighters arrived. Others could be heard yelling at those people to jump from the window.
Because Wednesday night's fiery crash followed an attempted traffic stop, Ferguson said the department sent its Force Investigation Team to the scene as "a precaution." The team reviews incidents in which officers use force in their dealings with the public.
A federal reform agreement that New Orleans police entered several years ago prohibits officers from chasing people suspected of nonviolent crimes, such as possessing a stolen car.
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