Deliberately Set Fire Kills Man in West Hollywood Apartment

The body of a man was found inside the bedroom of a West Hollywood apartment heavily damaged Saturday in an early morning fire that was deliberately set, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators said.

The man, believed to be in his 50s, had not been identified Saturday. His body was found bound inside a ground floor apartment of a 10-unit complex in the 900 block of North Stanley Avenue, homicide and arson investigators said. Authorities believe he was the tenant of the apartment. They had no motive in the killing.

“This fire was definitely set,” said Sgt. Howard Rechtschaffen, of the sheriff’s arson and explosive detail. “No sign of electrical, gas or other problems.” He would not elaborate on evidence taken from the unit.

No other apartments were damaged and no other injuries were reported in the 6 a.m. blaze that took firefighters about 15 minutes to extinguish. About 20 residents were evacuated.

A woman who lives in the unit directly above the fire said she was awakened by loud screams, shouts of “Help, Help,” the sound of falling furniture and pounding on the wall.

When 67-year-old Dvoira Khaytina, got out of bed, she said, her bare feet touched a hot floor. She noticed the wall in her bathroom was turning black, and she smelled smoke.

“I called 911,” said Khaytina. “I called for help and then I ran outside,”

Several tenants and neighbors said they did not know the man who had lived alone in the unit for about five years. Several said that they kept away from him, frightened because they frequently heard him shouting or singing in sometimes loud, angry tones.

Khaytina said that he would bang on her wall if her television was turned on too loud.

“All these years and I never talked to him,” she said.

Fire officials said the blaze caused about $30,000 in damage to the building and about $6,000 worth of property inside the unit was destroyed.