Library Fire Was Arson, Bradley and Fire Chief Say

Mayor Tom Bradley and Fire Chief Donald Manning confirmed Monday that last week’s Los Angeles Central Library fire, which caused an estimated $22 million in damage, was deliberately set.

“It is without any reservation that we now tell you that it was an arson fire,” Manning said. “The point of origin was in the stack area, the fifth tier,” an area that is restricted to library personnel.

Manning also said investigators want to question an unidentified “blondish” man in his late 20s or early 30s who was seen by several employees near the fire’s point of origin at about the time the blaze started shortly before 11 a.m. last Tuesday. But he stressed that the man, a composite sketch of whom was released to the media, cannot now be considered a suspect.

The mayor said he has asked the City Council to offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the person or persons who set the fire.

This would be in addition to a $5,000 reward already offered by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tax and Firearms, which is aiding Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigators in the case.

Manning said the fire was started “in combustibles” on the fifth tier of the northeast book stacking area of the 60-year-old downtown library. The Times reported last Friday that investigators had by then virtually ruled out the possibility that the fire was an accident.

The fire chief said Monday that he would not identify the combustible material used to start the blaze. “Combustibles means anything that burns, (but) it does not mean books,” Manning said. The chief added that the incendiary materials were “normal combustibles,” without elaborating.

Manning described the man investigators are seeking as about 6 feet tall, 165 pounds, with blue eyes, blond hair, a light mustache and a “rather thin face.” He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans and a casual shirt. He did not appear to be a “street person,” the chief said.

More Than 350 Questioned

“We would like to talk to the individual,” he said but he indicated that the arson case might be solved without him. He urged the man, or anyone knowing anything about him, to telephone (213) 626-1081.

Manning said that more than 350 people, including library staff members and patrons, have been questioned and that a lie-detector test has been given in at least one instance.

The mayor said the conflagration was the largest library fire in the nation’s history. The chief said there is a type of arsonist that targets libraries. He said there have been “about 45 fires in this century in libraries that in one way or the other have been arson-type fires.”

He said there is an increasing number of juvenile arsonists who set such fires “without particular cause.” In addition, he said, “people who are . . . mentally deranged will set these kinds of fires, and there are those that are set for political or religious reasons.”

But as to the motive in the Central Library arson, Manning said, “I have no idea.”

Department spokesman Capt. Tony DiDomenico said the latest damage figures are $2 million to the building and $20 million to its contents. About 20% of the library’s 2-million-volume inventory was destroyed in the fire, while about 600,000 books were damaged by water.