Thrift Store Run by AIDS Group Hit by $60,000 Fire; Arson Suspected

A suspicious fire gutted a West Hollywood thrift store run by the city’s second-largest AIDS-care organization, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said Sunday.

The roof and $60,000 worth of clothing were destroyed in the fire late Saturday at Out of the Closet in the 800 block of North La Brea Avenue before firefighters could douse the flames, said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Health Care Foundation, which operates the store.

City arson investigators are probing the cause of the fire, but they told foundation officials that it apparently began about 11:30 p.m. in a pile of clothes in the middle of the floor in the one-story, 4,000 square-foot, wood-frame building, Weinstein said.

The fire also cost at least two workers their jobs, and the foundation may not be able to reopen, Weinstein said.

The thrift store, like another Out of the Closet branch in Atwater Village, is important not only for fund raising but as a way of increasing public awareness of the AIDS Health Care Foundation’s hospices and clinics, Weinstein said. It represented several hundred thousand dollars per year in revenue for the foundation, he said.

Morale had been high among AIDS Health Care Foundation workers recently because the organization had opened a new hospice and helped stave off Gov. Pete Wilson’s attempts to cut MediCal reimbursement for AIDS hospices, Weinstein said.

“It’s sad and it’s frustrating,” Weinstein said of the fire. “For whatever the reason--whether it’s related to AIDS or not--it’s sad to see this kind of destruction go on against people who are trying to help.”

The store had twice been burglarized of cash, and the fire appeared to have been set after another burglary attempt, he said.

The investigation is continuing, said Bob Collis, a Fire Department spokesman.