Investigators Seek Elusive Clues in Fire That Killed 2

As puzzled federal agents with tractors sorted through the charred pieces of the Palomar Hotel in Hollywood on Monday, survivors of last week’s deadly fire struggled to put their lives back together.

At Childrens Hospital, a boy, 3, and girl, 5, were to learn for the first time Monday that their mother was among the dead. The children’s father, Miguel Angel Galindo, asked hospital officials to wait a few days before they were told.

Norma Galindo, 38, fell to her death just after passing her children to firefighters through a window. Scores of people have responded to the death, seeking to donate funds to help the children.

In a news conference at the scene of the fire, police released the name of its other victim, who was unidentified until Monday. He was Juan Pedro Salazar, 47.

Authorities confirmed that he was known to tenants as “Arturo,” the apartment manager. Tenants said he is survived by a wife and three children.

Residents said they believed Salazar was the brother of the building’s owner. An attorney for the owner, Juan Jose Ortiz, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In Sherman Oaks, two firefighters who were injured in the blaze prepared for surgery on second- and third-degree burns today.

At a temporary shelter at Virgil Middle School on Vermont Avenue, former Palomar residents recounted being turned away by landlord after landlord as they tried to find new rooms to rent.

Many were preparing to spend their fourth night on folding cots in the school’s gymnasium, and Red Cross officials said 18 tenants were still without housing.

Investigators still had no explanation for the fire, which seemed to begin with what one resident described as a boom so loud it seemed “subatomic” early Thursday in the hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard near Western Avenue.

The flames shot through the building so quickly that they had reached the roof by the time the first fire companies arrived.

“In just one minute, everyone’s life changed,” said survivor Walter Deal, 58, one of the residents still trying to find a place to live.

Tenants Have Trouble Finding Housing

Several former tenants said that landlords had refused to take their Red Cross vouchers for housing. Many were paying about $360 a month for a furnished room at the Palomar, and were having difficulty finding similarly cheap dwellings elsewhere.

On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council approved grants from a new relocation fund to help the displaced residents, who will receive $2,000 to $5,000 each, depending on their circumstances, said Rich Llewellyn, spokesman for City Councilman Eric Garcetti. Tenants were still waiting for checks at midday Monday.

Los Angeles police investigators and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said they had found no evidence that there was a methamphetamine lab explosion.

But they had not determined the cause of the blast, which tore through the building so violently that it melted smoke detectors.

“Why did it seem to come up so quickly? A defect? A natural phenomenon? A criminal act? We just don’t know enough,” said LAPD Lt. Raymond Foster.

ATF investigators will continue to dig debris out of the building, measure rooms, and develop computer models of the fire’s progression, and will be at the scene at least another day.

ATF Special Agent Donald Kincaid said ATF fire investigators are typically called in to investigate disasters involving explosions and fatalities, such as the crash of TWA Flight 800, in which an airliner exploded over New York in 1996.

The teams are especially adept at canvassing fire scenes quickly, he said.

As the investigation continued, donations poured into the Hollywood branch of Wells Fargo Bank for the Galindo family. The Galindo children were on respirators due to smoke inhalation, but have recovered sufficiently to be moved to a regular room.

They were reported to be playing together early Monday before a hospital team including a chaplain was to visit them to inform them of their mother’s death.

On Friday, their father, Miguel Angel Galindo, told radio host Pepe Barreto of the Spanish-language station KLVE that he “had lost everything, his wife, everything, except his children,” Barreto said.

The interview, which aired on Barreto’s morning show, helped kick off a weekend-long fund-raising drive.

Reporter Solicits Donations for Family

Barreto, who covered the Palomar fire as a reporter, said he was especially touched by the heroic efforts of Norma Galindo, also identified as Norma Villalobos Miranda, to save her two children, and called his own bank to set up an account for the family.

He made announcements on KLVE throughout the weekend asking for donations.

Other Spanish-language media also have made public pleas. In response, the bank has received “calls every other second,” said Miriam Duarte of Wells Fargo. “It’s just call after call, in English; only one has been in Spanish.”

Duarte would not disclose how much money has been raised, but said the bank could not handle all the calls and asked donations to be sent to the Galindo Family Trust, Account No. 561 297 5853 at 6320 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028.

The Red Cross is seeking donations to help the fire’s survivors, and hopes that landlords will offer the tenants temporary or permanent housing.

Checks can be sent to Disaster Relief, American Red Cross of Los Angeles, 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057.

For information, call (213) 739-5267 or visit https://www.redcross--la.org.