Pan Pacific Fire Blamed on Arsonist

Until the arrival of Mattie, Los Angeles arson investigators working the ruins of the historic Pan Pacific Auditorium were stumped. The place is so huge they did not know where to put vapor-detection equipment that must be no more than four inches from a source.

But a few minutes after the 4-year-old black Labrador from Meriden, Conn., began sniffing the floor on Friday, investigators confirmed the presence of numerous spots showing evidence of flammable, volatile liquid.

Fire Chief Donald O. Manning said during a news conference at the Beverly Boulevard site a few hours later that the pattern the dog identified helped arson investigators confirm what they had suspected: Wednesday’s fire at the 54-year-old Streamline Moderne arena was set deliberately.

The chief said the finding is the first step in any attempt to solve the crime. A laboratory analysis using gas chromatography will take several days to identify the liquid used to start the fire, he said.

And although officials now are convinced that the fire was the work of one or more arsonists, they have no identified suspects. Investigators continue to seek information about reports that several people were seen in the cavernous structure just before the fire started, the chief added.

Meanwhile, despite statements from elected officials that a $14.6-million plan for commercial restoration of the huge indoor arena should be abandoned, developer Joseph Kornwasser said he is “ready, willing and able” to keep the project alive even though that now means massive reconstruction.

The use of Mattie, who can detect the presence of 17 flammable liquids at levels far more faint than can electronic probes, was the first use on the West Coast of a dog specially trained to assist arson investigators, according to the fire chief.

He said he had been skeptical about using such a dog but had been persuaded by her performance at Pan Pacific and now supports the request of arson investigators to get one of their own.

Ferraro to Seek Funding

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro, who attended the news conference, said he intends to lobby the council Finance Committee for funding.

Mattie’s handler, Doug Lancelot, a Connecticut State Police trooper, said she is one of five specially trained dogs working with fire departments in the United States. He said that she has assisted in the investigation of more than 200 fires and that laboratory analyses have confirmed her scentings about 75% of the time.

He said her nose, which can detect flammable vapors in concentrations measured in parts per billion, is about 1,000 times more sensitive than electronic probes that can pick up vapor concentrations only in parts per million.

Her presence at the Los Angeles fire site was in large part a result of the efforts of arson investigator Tony La Palio, who read about Mattie in a California magazine for arson investigators and began lobbying his superiors to find out more.

“It took me six months to convince my boss,” he said, adding that her performance Friday was the clincher. “There is nothing like seeing,” he said.

The cost of bringing the dog here, estimated at $1,000, will be paid by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco.

Wrangling over the building’s future continued.

“As far as we are concerned,” developer Kornwasser said in an interview, “the project can still be rehabilitated. For us, the Pan Pacific was a real labor of love and it continues to be that. It is real sad that people don’t view the Pan Pacific in its historical perspective.”

The county planned to restore the building, which was on the National Register of Historic Places, by installing an ice-skating rink, a rhythmic gymnastics facility, movie theaters, a food court, restaurants, a sporting goods shop, park offices and meeting rooms for community groups.

Neighbors had opposed the project, saying the entertainment-oriented development would bring crime, traffic, late-night noises, graffiti and parking problems.

County Rent

According to a preliminary agreement with the architectural and development team of Kornwasser & Friedman/Goldrich & Kest, the county was to get an estimated $3.8 million in rent in the first 10 years of the project; officials hoped the money would defray the cost of keeping up the state-owned park, which is administered by the county.

Ferraro, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman said Thursday in the wake of the fire that the plans to develop the Pan Pacific site should be scaled down.

Kornwasser criticized the two city councilmen for pronouncing the county-sponsored project dead and added that he intends to work with county and state officials to see if he can revive the project.