GLENDALE : Failed Arson Attempt Baffles Investigators

Glendale Fire officials Wednesday said they were baffled by a failed arson attempt at a seven-unit apartment building, where they found 19 plastic containers of flammable liquids hidden around the building.

“It’s bizarre,” said arson investigator Joe Lopez. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Milk bottles, soda bottles and motor oil containers, filled with a mixture of oil and gas, were found on the roof, in the garage, under cars, at the front entrance, in ceiling rafters and in the plumbing access of the two-story structure in the 600 block of Chestnut Street, Lopez said. Some of the containers were tied together with twine, which ran down a roof drainage pipe as a fuse that was lit but failed to reach the containers.

“It was very amateurish,” Lopez said.

“Apparently there were no problems in the apartment building,” Lopez said. “As far as the motive behind it, or whether its going to occur again, we really don’t know.”