A fire caused major damage to 4 apartment buildings in Chinatown near Downtown LA on Friday, September 13, 2024.
The Los Angeles Police Department said an early morning fire in Chinatown last week that damaged four apartment buildings and injured six people was arson.
"After a thorough investigation, LAFD and the ATF officials determined that the fire was deliberately set," Assistant Chief Blake Chow said Tuesday. "Investigators have developed a strong lead on a suspect and are hopeful that the arrest will be made soon."
The fire was first reported around 3:45 a.m. last Friday at an unfinished building between Bunker Hill Avenue and New Depot Street adjacent to the lanes of the 110 Freeway.
Intense flames from the burning unfinished building, which was mostly exposed wooden framing on a concrete base, damaged dozens of units in three other apartment buildings that faced the construction site.
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Fifty one residents were displaced from their apartments as a result of the fire, and at least one of the adjacent buildings was closed and red tagged because of the damage, city officials said.
Two residents, including a 90-year-old man, were taken to a hospital in critical condition, and four firefighters were injured.
Chow said three displaced residents were later the victims of a burglaries that took place in the damaged and closed apartment buildings.
Some neighbors said the apartment complex has been under construction for a couple of years and has caught on fire in the past, and others complained that there was a homeless encampment on the property of the unfinished building.
