Merchant Suspected in Blast at His Store

A 59-year-old merchant may have caused the explosion and fire that left him critically injured and damaged his Harbor Gateway stationery store and two neighboring businesses, an arson investigator said.

Robert Goodman of San Pedro was in critical condition Wednesday evening at Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center after an early morning fire at The Stationery Store on Carson Street.

Los Angeles city firefighters were called to the business at 3:50 a.m. after an explosion blew glass and debris 50 feet into the store’s parking lot. A dozen firefighters extinguished it the ensuing blaze.

The fire caused $100,000 in damage to the stationery store, the B.A. Supermarket and the Harbor Employees Credit Union.

Investigators found three five-gallon cans of gasoline inside the stationery store and smelled fumes, indicating the fuel had been spread around the business, said Los Angeles City Fire Department arson investigator Jim Thornton.

Goodman’s stepdaughter told investigators that he arrived at his home, about five miles from the store, at 4:30 a.m. and said that he had been burned in an accidental fire, Thornton said.

The stepdaughter drove Goodman to the hospital. There was no evidence that Goodman was trying to commit suicide, but his business “had been a drain on his personal finances,” Thornton said.