Fire Shuts Bakery Staffed by Ex-Gang Members

A bakery started by a priest to give former gang members jobs, hope and a fresh start shut down Friday morning after an electrical fire caused an estimated $40,000 in damage to the East 3rd Street shop.

Many of the young bakers, some of whom were members of rival gangs, learned they were out of work when they arrived at Homeboy Bakery in Boyle Heights on Friday morning in their white uniforms and saw the bakery’s charred walls and water-soaked ceiling.

“I thought it was a dream,” said Orlando Hernandez, 19, who has worked at the bakery for four months, his first job since getting out of jail for armed robbery.

“This place gave me the feeling of . . . cashing my first paycheck. Man, that was a good feeling,” he said.

Fire officials said the blaze, which started about 2 a.m., was probably caused by a short in the antiquated electrical system.

The front office and packaging room were gutted, and most of the ovens and mixing and kneading machines suffered water and smoke damage. A mural on the front of the bakery, depicting an Aztec warrior and Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata alongside a group of homeboys, was unscathed. The bakery is across the street from the Dolores Mission Church.

Father Gregory Boyle, the church’s priest who started the bakery, said he was not sure if insurance will pay to rebuild the bakery. “It’s a huge setback for us,” he said.

Boyle said his biggest worry is finding work for bakery employees, many of whom have families to support. He added that he may be able to employ them in the five other associated businesses the church oversees.

“This place made them legit,” he said. “Half of them have been able to put deposits down on apartments.”

Homeboy Bakery, which employed 11 workers, was the first of the six businesses in Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit, church-affiliated enterprise that employs about 70 young men and women making silk screens, doing landscaping and selling T-shirts and other Homeboy merchandise.

The bakery on the corner of East 3rd and Gless streets has had a troubled history. Started after the 1992 riots, it has closed twice because of financial woes and heavy competition. Most recently, the bakery reopened in 1997 with the help of a $160,000 grant from radio station KPWR-FM (Power 106).

The grant was used to upgrade the bakery, which had a deal to bake 600 Italian, French and sourdough loaves a day for Frisco Baking Co. in Cypress Park.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nick Pacheco said he will help find money to rebuild the bakery. “It’s an important part of the community and I will do anything I can to get the bakery back on its feet,” said Pacheco, who represents the area.

On Friday, the sweet smell of freshly baked bread was replaced by the pungency of charred wood and melted plastic.

Boyle and several of his Homeboy bakers paced the parking lot of the bakery, trying to figure out what to do next.

Francisco Bonilla, 20, served jail time for “doing some stupid stuff when I was younger.” Then he met Boyle. The priest offered to help Bonilla remove several gang tattoos from his forehead and directed him to a job at the bakery.

It was Bonilla’s first job. “The bakery changed my life,” he said. “I only missed three days in the whole year I worked here.”

He said he learned of the fire when co-workers banged on his door early Friday. “I thought, man, I’m out of a job,” he said. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve been here a year and it’s become like a family.”