LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fire and explosion that killed two people at a Hollywood residential hotel last week was set by an arsonist who poured about 40 gallons of gasoline throughout the four-story building, investigators said.
No motive has been established for the Aug. 16 fire at the dilapidated Palomar Hotel. "There was a heavy presence of flammable liquid: gasoline," fire chief William Bamattre said.
"At least three times a month we get people in there screaming and yelling that they're going to kill us or they're going to burn us out" because they had been denied a room, said Joseph Lewellen, the stepfather of building owner Juan Ortiz.
Lewellen's other stepson, hotel manager Juan Salazar, 47, and tenant Norma Galindo, 38, died in the blaze. Galindo's 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter remained hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns.