FEDERAL investigators have concluded the massive fire that engulfed an entire apartment complex under construction in downtown Los Angeles was deliberately set.
Investigators digging through the rubble and damage left by last week’s blaze collected samples from suspected points of origin, sifting through 75,000 square feet of debris to determine arson was the cause. A national response team, the Los Angeles fire department’s arson task force, and the LAPD’s criminal conspiracy were called to assist the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the investigation, due to the fire’s great magnitude.
The blaze, which broke out in the middle of the night on Dec. 8, consumed a whole seven-story wooden frame building of the Da Vinci apartment complex on the 900 block of West Temple St., near the intersection of the 101 and 110 freeways. The intensity of the fire temporarily shut down both freeways and nearby streets, causing traffic and road chaos early that morning, and damaged nearby office buildings.
It took over 200 firefighters an hour and a half to extinguish the flames, which rose to heights taller than many of downtown LA’s buildings. The total damage was estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said the sheer “amount of fire” that consumed the seven-story wooden structure made it suspicious; even a nearby fire station reported two-thirds of the building was already burning by the time firefighters received the initial report at 1:09 am and rushed over.
“That’s unusual, to have that much fire all at the same time,” Terrazas said.
After investigation, the ATF response team concluded that the fire was “incendiary,” or deliberately set. City authorities will likely launch an arson investigation to identify those responsible for the blaze.
Two potential witnesses who were present near the scene of the fire are also being sought by police, captured in surveillance footage. Investigators said the two men were not suspects or persons of interest, but “purely investigative leads.” Authorities have yet to identify the men involved.
(With reports from LA Times, Wall Street Journal)
(www.asianjournal.news)
(LA Weekend December 20-23, 2014 Sec. A pg.5)