Market’s Fire Not Linked to Gulf War, Probe Finds
A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said Thursday that investigators have concluded that the fire early Wednesday at the Elat Market, 8730 W. Pico Blvd. in West Los Angeles, was caused by an accidental electrical short and was not connected--as some firemen had first suspected--to tensions growing out of the Persian Gulf War.
The fire is now believed to have begun at the rear of the Crestview stationery store next to the market and to have spread to the market and to a vacant furniture store on the other side.
Private insurance investigators said Thursday that, in seeking an independent assessment of the cause, they would do their own examination of the debris from the fire, which heavily damaged the market and gutted the two other stores.
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