South L.A. dog lover loses life — and most of his canine family

By most measures, the man known to his neighbors as “Victor” didn’t have much. Until a late-night fire claimed his life a little more than a week ago, home was a cramped space in an auto repair shop in a tough South Los Angeles neighborhood.

But he loved the stray dogs he had taken in, who had become his family.

Victor knew a lot of people in the neighborhood, said community activist Leticia Cervantes, who met him while walking her own dogs and became his friend.

“He was very polite, very nice,” Cervantes said. “He cared for his pets a lot.”

Cervantes volunteers with two groups, Downtown Dog Rescue and L.A. Animal Rescue, and she helps the poor and homeless people in the neighborhood with their pets, providing food and whatever aid and comfort she can.

She told the 57-year-old Latino, who may have been undocumented, about Downtown Dog Rescue and had recently talked him into allowing the organization to get the dogs vaccinated and spayed or neutered at no cost to himself.

Though grateful, Victor was reluctant to have the canines undergo surgery until Cervantes pointed out that the dogs would get papers certifying their vaccinations and neutering, like being “documented.” And the papers would prove he was their owner.

A short time later, Cervantes snapped photos of her friend proudly showing off two of his newly treated dogs.

“Victor was a gentleman who loved animals,” said Lori Weiss, president of Downtown Dog Rescue, which uses grants and donations to help South L.A. residents care for beloved pets who might otherwise end up in animal shelters or go without vaccines or other needed medical treatment.

“He was so proud that his dogs were ‘documented,’ ” Weiss said.

In the early morning darkness of June 16, tragedy struck Victor and all but one of his canine family. Fire broke out in the auto shop at 80th Street and South San Pedro Avenue, fed quickly by stacks of papers and other items stored inside, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. The shop door had a double-cylinder deadbolt lock, and Victor and his dogs could not get out.

A passerby saw smoke and alerted firefighters about 1:30 a.m. They found Victor near the door, not breathing and without a pulse. They carried him outside and tried to revive him, to no avail. The coroner’s office has not publicly identified the man because they still are trying to notify his next of kin.

The only survivor was Genie, a roughly 3-year-old female Rottweiler mix whom Victor kept outside as designated watchdog.

Cervantes, alerted by a neighbor about 7 a.m., ran to the scene.

“I wanted to see if I could do anything,” she said. Someone had tied the frightened Genie to a parked car. Investigators at the scene allowed Cervantes to take the dog home instead of sending the now-homeless Genie to the shelter.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Cervantes contacted Downtown Dog Rescue and volunteers swung into action, hoping to find a home for a dog they quickly found to be healthy, friendly, calm and affectionate. She is staying at Amanda Foundation kennels and “is ready for a new home,” Weiss said.

More information about Genie is available through https://www.downtowndogrescue.org or the organization’s hotline, (818) 407-4145.

Cervantes mourns the others and hopes to organize a funeral for Victor.

“I just feel so sad,” Cervantes said Sunday. “Dying in a fire had to be painful for all of them. I just wish I could have done something more.”

jean.merl@latimes.com