Tenant Arrested After Fires at Apartment, Landlord’s Home

An unemployed teacher scheduled for eviction from his Redondo Beach apartment Wednesday allegedly set fire to the building and then tried to burn down the Manhattan Beach home of his landlord, police said.

Javier Bunuel, 62, who was arrested near the home of his landlord shortly after 6 a.m., was booked Wednesday on suspicion of attempted murder and arson, Manhattan Beach police Sgt. John Zea said. Bunuel was being held without bail at the Manhattan Beach City Jail.

His landlord “was in the process of evicting (him) from one of the apartments,” Zea said. “He was due to be locked out of the apartment (Wednesday).”

The fire, which started in Bunuel’s apartment about 5:30 a.m. destroyed his and another apartment and significantly damaged two others in the eight-unit building in the 2600 block of Grant Avenue, Redondo Beach Deputy Fire Chief Pat Aust said.

The fire, which caused an estimated $300,000 in damage, was preceded by an explosion loud enough to awaken firefighters two blocks away, Aust said. It took more than 25 firefighters about 2 1/2 hours to put out the flames, he said.

Only one of the 11 tenants--an elderly woman who suffered bruises and scrapes while crawling out a window--was injured seriously enough to require a trip to the hospital, Aust said.

“We are amazed that the others were able to escape” without injury, Aust said.

While firefighters battled the Redondo Beach blaze, Bunuel allegedly drove to his landlord’s house in the 2300 block of Palm Avenue in Manhattan Beach and started a fire there, Zea said.

Patrol Officer Frank DiBenedetto, who drove past the landlord’s house soon after the fire there had started, arrested Bunuel around the corner.

“He was found covered with some type of flammable liquid and then we found small bottles of it in his car,” Zea said. “He filled fruit jars and gallon bottles with this flammable liquid.”

Police believe Bunuel tossed bottles of the liquid through the front windows of his landlord’s house after the fire had started. Although there was some damage to the outside of the home, the fire was extinguished before the interior was burned. No one was injured, Zea said.