U.S. Agents Join Westwood Fire Probe

A dozen local and federal arson investigators began digging through still-hot rubble Tuesday to determine the source of a mysterious explosion that ignited a series of major fires in Westwood last weekend, which officials now estimate caused at least $25 million damage.

The predawn blaze hopscotched along the Wilshire Corridor and into nearby neighborhoods, damaging 15 luxury condominium complexes and houses.

“Right now, $25 million is a conservative estimate,” said Los Angeles Deputy Fire Chief Craig G. Drummond, who supervised efforts to contain the conflagration, which was one of the worst in the city’s history. “Literally, it could be well beyond that because we’ll probably never know about the value of people’s personal effects lost in the fire.”

Many residents returning to their fire-charred homes to retrieve valuables cited losses of irreplaceable paintings, artifacts, antique furniture and first-edition 19th-Century books, as well as recent home improvement projects in the $1-million range.

An indication of just how high damages could soar among the wealthy residents could be found in the recent sale of art belonging to fabled film director Billy Wilder, a longtime resident of the heavily damaged Wilshire Terrace apartment building.

Earlier this month, Wilder auctioned much of the contemporary art collection he had kept in his apartment, which suffered heavy smoke damage in the blaze. The auction brought $32.6 million. By contrast, the total damage at the massive First Interstate Bank high-rise fire in 1988 was $45 million.

It was midday Tuesday before arson investigators were able to begin sifting through the debris left at the Devonhill Condominiums, where the fire started early Saturday. They were assisted by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who have special training in investigating explosive fires. So far no physical evidence of arson has been found, but the investigation is expected to take at least two days.

Witnesses said the fire erupted after a loud explosion inside the four-story luxury condominium construction site that had been scheduled to open in April.

Investigators were focusing on the central area of the unfinished building as a possible starting point of the fire. The elevator doors had collapsed inward into the shafts, according to a construction company foreman at the site.

Whipped by winds, the showering fireballs and red-hot cinders ignited four additional blazes over several blocks and led to the greatest mobilization for a building fire in the city’s history. Although no serious injuries were reported, the fires routed 150 people from their residences.

Battalion Chief Dean Cathey said Tuesday that the federal arson team, which has a mobile laboratory that can test for explosives, had been called in for assistance “because of the amount of debris and damage and the concern that there may have been some foul play involved in the fire.”

Lawyers for Devonshire Associates, the developer of the Devonhill project, said that their clients knew of no motives for arson.

“There are a substantial number of small lawsuits against the project,” acknowledged attorney Richard Gesch of Maui. “But they were very negligible.” The suits, according to Los Angeles Superior Court records, involved efforts by several concrete subcontractors to collect payments allegedly due them from another subcontractor.

Gesch said Devonshire’s president, Jean Pierre Chavy, a retired Singapore bank president, was “in tears” as a result of the fire. Chavy, he said, had signed a personal guarantee with a bank to repay the loan for the luxury building project.

Ron Montgomery, crew foreman for Charter Construction Co., which is the general contractor for the 17-unit Devonhill complex, added that he knew of no labor problems at the construction site. “There was no big layoff and there wasn’t a big layoff planned. One or two (people) may have gone, but there have been no problems that I’m aware of--nothing out of the ordinary.”

Residents of the 14-story Wilshire Terrace, located just west of the Devonhill construction site, were told Tuesday that they will be unable to return home for anywhere from 10 days to six months. During that time, extensive repairs will be made to the building’s electrical power system. A total of 22 units--including one owned by actress Greer Garson, who was away at the time--were destroyed or severely damaged in the blaze.

“I wish the building would have had fire sprinklers. We would have saved many millions of dollars of destruction had the building been sprinklered,” Drummond said.

Residents of the 30-year-old apartment cooperative had discussed installing a sprinkler system, at an estimated cost of about $1 million, during the last year, a building management official said Tuesday. But no vote was ever taken by the cooperative’s nine-member board of directors.

“They always wanted to do what was the safest thing,” said Jon D. Waldron, assistant vice president for the George Elkins Co., which manages Wilshire Terrace. “I can guarantee you . . . they will do it (now).”

Some residents across the street at the three-story French Normandy-style Devonshire apartment complex Tuesday were critical of the Fire Department’s response time. Building owner Eleanore Heller, 58, who arrived at the scene about 40 minutes after the initial explosion, said she was troubled that none of the firefighters were concentrating efforts on her burning building, which was essentially destroyed.

“Can’t you save it? Can’t you save it?” she said she asked firefighters early Saturday. “They said, ‘No, we don’t have enough manpower.’

”. . . Maybe their priority was to contain the high-rise fire. But maybe there should have been more manpower.”

Drummond, however, said the Fire Department responded as quickly as possible under trying circumstances.

“It was what we call a ‘career fire,’ ” he said. “They don’t get any more demanding, and I don’t think any better job could have been done fighting this fire.”