Crime & Safety
Firefighters Chase String of Arson Incidents in West Hollywood
Authorities are seeking more information from the community about the early morning blazes.
A number of parked cars in garages were set ablaze in West Hollywood and Hollywood early Friday morning in about a dozen arson fires that threatened apartment dwellers and prompted Los Angeles police to go on tactical alert.
West Hollywood alone had four fires of suspicious nature, said Lt. William Nash of the Los Angeles County's Sheriff's West Hollywood station. "At one point we had three vehicle fires reported within 11 minutes."
The first was reported at 12:23 a.m. and the last at 2:09 a.m., Nash said. They were at 7762 Romaine St., 1047 Genesee Ave., 1200 Curson Ave. and 1226 Harper Ave., he said.
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Firefighters in Hollywood called up reinforcements from the San Fernando Valley after an L.A. County firefighter suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a fire at 8021 Rothdell Trail in the Hollywood Hills, said department spokesman Brian Humphrey.
He said the fire, reported at 1:18 a.m., started in a vehicle, then spread to the home's exterior and a balcony and was extinguished in 35 minutes by 56 firefighters.
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Neighbors said Jim Morrison of the Doors once lived at the Rothdell Trail property with his girlfriend, Pamela Courson.
Another vehicle fire that spread to a building occurred at 1156 N. Cahuenga Blvd, Humphrey said. He said it started with four cars being set on fire around 2:40 a.m. and was extinguished by 32 firefighters in 18 minutes.
A vehicle fire also was reported at 4:03 a.m. at 1439 N. Poinsettia Place and threatened nearby apartments for a time, he said.
In addition to the incidents officially reported, news camera crews shot fires overnight in the 1700 block of Orange Drive, at Hollywood Boulevard and Bronson Avenue, in the 1800 block of Vine Street, the 1200 block of McCadden Place and the 1300 block of Citrus Avenue.
In response to the fires, the Los Angeles Police Department declared a tactical alert in the Operations-West Bureau around 4:20 a.m., allowing supervisors to keep officers over beyond the end of their shifts.
"We will be working with all the allied agencies -- the County Fire Department, the Los Angeles police and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department -- to put together a joint deployment plan to keep the residents of the Hollywood and the West Hollywood areas safe," L.A. Fire Deputy Chief Mario Rueda said at a news conference Friday morning.
Two suspects were arrested in connection with similar fires Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
One of the suspects was 22-year-old Sunland resident Samuel Arrington, who was nabbed by LAPD officers in the area of La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard around 1:30 a.m. after he set a fire in a garbage can outside a 7-Eleven and attempted to light a gas tank on a utility truck, police said.
Arrington was booked on suspicion of attempted arson and remains in jail in lieu of $75,000 bail. The other man arrested Thursday was not immediately identified.
