Arrests made in 1993 Los Angeles fire that killed 10

By Cindy Chang and Richard Winton

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police said Saturday that multiple people have been arrested in connection with a 1993 fire that killed 10 people, including seven children and two pregnant women.

The fire, in an old apartment building packed with immigrants from Latin America, exposed flaws in fire inspection procedures and prompted reforms. Police have long believed the fire was arson, started by gang members possibly angry at not being allowed to deal drugs there.

Officer Aareon Jefferson, an police spokesman, said Saturday that he did not have the names of the suspects who were arrested. The department said it will release more information at a news conference Monday.

Prosecutors had previously accused two gang members of starting the fire but eventually dropped the charges.

About 75 men, women and children — most of them poor Latino immigrants — fled from the three-story building when the fire began on May 3, 1993. Some leaped from windows. Others clambered down metal fire-escape ladders. Still others lowered themselves down sheets tied to balcony railings.

By the time firefighters arrived, neighbors had formed a human chain clinging to the side of the building, passing small children hand to hand to those below. Despite their efforts, many residents fell victim to the smoke, which filled hallways and rooms, reducing visibility to near zero.

The fire exposed the substandard conditions of many buildings crammed with immigrant families in the city’s Westlake-Pico Union area.

A Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that the Fire Department inspected the area infrequently and haphazardly. Fire officials did not follow procedures in ordering the building owner to address violations that officials said contributed to the 10 deaths.

Many of the buildings had serious fire safety violations, such as missing fire extinguishers and padlocked emergency exits, the Times investigation found. The building in the 300 block of South Burlington Avenue that was the site of the fatal fire had earlier been the target of a suspected arson, and inspections had detected a series of safety violations there — but they were not corrected.

In 1998, prosecutors filed multiple murder charges against two members of the 18th Street gang. They alleged that Rogelio Andrade and Allan Lobos started the fire to intimidate an apartment manager who had tried to drive drug dealers off her property.

But two years later, the charges against the men were dropped, with prosecutors saying there was a lack of evidence.

“It wasn’t clear these were the right guys,” Deputy Dist. Attorney. Joseph Esposito, who was prosecuting the case, said at the time, “No one is thrilled with the idea (of dropping the charges), but we don’t want to prosecute innocent people.”