Tow company hit by arson

Arson investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are searching for suspects captured on video deliberately setting fire to a La Crescenta business early Monday that caused an estimated $450,000 in damages.

A field sergeant on patrol at around 1:40 a.m. noticed smoke near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Cloud Avenue and approached the area to see Crescenta Valley Tow in flames, according to watch commander Lt. Randy Tuinstra.

“It appeared it was an arson,” the watch commander said Wednesday. “An accelerant had been dropped on one of the cars inside, setting the fire.”

Units from county Fire Station 63 in La Crescenta responded to the blaze, which by then had engulfed a portion of the building as well as several vehicles and motorcycles inside, Tuinstra said. Structural damage was estimated at around $250,000, with another $200,000 of damage coming from the vehicle and the building’s contents, he added.

The intentional act of the suspects, combined with the total value of the overall damage, caused the case to be referred to the sheriff’s Arson and Explosives Unit. John Hanson, the investigator on the case, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In a public safety report to the La Cañada Flintridge City Council on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Fire Department Acting Assistant Chief Greg Hisel said an on-site video surveillance camera caught individuals hosing accelerant inside the building.

“We caught it on tape, sheriffs have that tape, a guy pouring some type of flammable liquid,” he told the council, adding that there was some suspicion the arson may have been related to prior events that had taken place at the facility.

Crescenta Valley Tow was open for business on Wednesday, according to business manager Jacci Present, despite the fact that the company’s dispatch office went up in flames in Monday’s event.

Present said the fire was set in the yard’s evidence hold, a garage containing vehicles impounded by law enforcement agencies for the purpose of collecting evidence. The arsonists were thought to have entered by cutting a hole in the roof of the garage, she added.

At the time of the arson, a driver for the company was working but was out on a call. Present and her family members, who co-own the company, did not know who the individuals caught on camera may have been.

“No one’s been disgruntled, no one’s threatened us,” she said, explaining that while they’ve had past customers get upset at having their cars impounded, no one has ever acted in retaliation. “This is definitely something we’ve never gone through.”

Present said she was grateful the field sergeant happened to be in the area at the time the smoke was noticed.

“We’re lucky she came by,” she said. “Had she not, the whole place would have been gone.”