Homeless Man’s Candle Causes a Fatal Blaze

A homeless man who was given temporary shelter in a storage room at a Sylmar motel died early Sunday when a lit candle he kept by his bed started a fire, authorities said.

Fred Roessler, 64, died of smoke inhalation in the small room that motel manager Rudy Lopez said he had offered the victim to keep him from sleeping on the streets.

In exchange for the room, Roessler occasionally helped him clean the motel, Lopez said. He said Roessler had a drinking problem and was in poor health.

“He was a good friend,” Lopez said. “He was a homeless person, a street person. I had known him for a long time. He told me he used to sleep out in the weeds in Hollywood. When he came out here, I offered him whatever I could. That’s the best I could do.”

The blaze in the 12900 block of N. San Fernando Road was started by a candle that Roessler burned while he slept in the storage room, said Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman Jim Williamson.

Lopez said Roessler, who had been staying in the room about two weeks, used the candle for warmth.

The fire broke out about 6 a.m. and about 25 firefighters extinguished the blaze within 10 minutes, Williamson said.

The fire was confined to the storage room and no other motel patrons were threatened, Williamson said.

“It was just a very small fire in that one room,” Williamson said.

The loss to the 12-unit structure was estimated at $1,000.