Fires Set at 3 Stores in 16 Hours
Three fires were deliberately set in area grocery and drug stores during a 16-hour period beginning Thursday morning, authorities said.
The fires all started in the paper-product aisles of the stores, said Bob Collis, Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman. The last fire began at 3:09 a.m. Friday at a Food 4 Less in the 5400 block of Sunset Boulevard near Western Avenue.
On Thursday, two other fires were set in nearby stores. At 8:27 p.m., a fire was set at Jons Marketplace in the 5300 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, and at 11:35 a.m. at Rite Aid in the 4600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, Collis said.
The Rite Aid fire was extinguished quickly and caused virtually no damage, he said. Jon’s Supermarket lost about $150,000 worth of its contents, Collis said. There was no estimate on the damage caused at Food 4 Less.
Most of the damage in all three fires was caused by water from sprinkler systems, not flames, Collis said. All the markets were open when the fires began, but no one was injured.
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