Hotel Fire Is Found to Be Arson

The Palomar Hotel fire in Hollywood was caused by an arsonist who spread 40 gallons of gasoline throughout the building--only to have the fuel inadvertently ignited by a water heater, authorities said Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Police Department said its criminal conspiracy and arson experts launched a formal investigation Wednesday morning but had made no arrests. Investigators said one of the two people killed in the fire, Juan Pedro Salazar, 47--the building’s manager and brother of the owner--was found near a spot on the second floor where gasoline was detected and close to gasoline containers.

One high-level authority confirmed that Salazar was a suspect. Fire Chief William Bamattre would not confirm that but emphasized, “There are a number of suspects. . . . We haven’t narrowed it down.” He said, however, “The presence of flammable liquids and the proximity of [Salazar] to them” provided a lead investigators would follow.

Authorities noted that Salazar lived on the first floor. Evidence from the fire suggests that the gasoline had been deliberately spread on floors 2 through 4.

Fumes from the gasoline funneling down a stairwell hit the pilot light on the water heater, resulting in a blast so powerful that 18-inch brick walls within the building shifted by up to one foot, said Mike Bouchard, agent in charge for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Flames then shot up through a stairwell, which acted as a chimney, and roared through the gasoline-doused halls. Investigators said the blast must have caught the suspected arsonist or arsonists by surprise.

The blaze also killed Norma Galindo, 38, who passed her two children to safety before falling to her death, and it injured several firefighters.

The fire broke out about 3:41 a.m. last Thursday in the vintage four-story residence hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard near the Hollywood Freeway. Flames had already reached the roof of the building when firefighters arrived, and tenants of the building were screaming from their windows or lined up trying to get out through the fire escapes.

Galindo had barely enough time to pass her small children to firefighters on a ladder before she fell to her death from a fourth-story window. Bamattre said Wednesday Galindo probably lost her grip, perhaps after being hit by a gust of heat. It is unlikely she jumped, he said.

Her fall was caught on video by a freelance television crew, and aired on some television networks, although several others declined to run the clip.

Her two children, Miguel, who celebrates his 4th birthday today, and Lupita, 5, suffered minor burns. Their father, Miguel Angel Galindo, Norma Galindo’s husband of 10 years, told reporters Wednesday that the children have been playing and eating, but, “They miss their mother. I can tell from their faces that they miss their mother.”

Firefighters Jared Bennett, 34, and Jeff Robles, 27, from Fire Station 52 near Melrose and North Oxford avenues, both suffered second- and third-degree burns. Both underwent surgery at Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks Monday. A third injured firefighter, Todd Shiraiwa, from Fire Station 27 near the intersection of Cole Avenue and Cahuenga Boulevard, was at home recovering from a broken collarbone.

Investigators said that multiple containers, some with gasoline in them, were recovered from the scene.

Bamattre also confirmed that Salazar’s wife and three children survive him, but declined to say whether they, too, lived in the building. Several residents have said they lived on the first floor but escaped injury in the fire.

Fire officials said fire prevention equipment such as sprinklers were functioning but were overwhelmed by the speed and size of the fire.

Bamattre noted that gasoline fumes ignited by a water heater’s pilot light occasionally cause accidental household fires.

Gasoline fumes are heavy and would have sunk to the bottom of the building’s stairwell, authorities said. There, given just the right quantity of vapor, they would ignite with a bang, just as gasoline does inside a car cylinder to propel a piston.

Bouchard of the ATF said that under the right conditions, just one gallon of gas can have the same explosive potential as two sticks of dynamite.

He called the crime “a cowardly act” and said its outcome might have been even worse if not for the aggressive efforts of the Los Angeles firefighters.

“With that amount of fuel in the building,” Bouchard said, “more could have died.”

Shortly after officials announced the cause of the fire, Miguel Galindo, dressed in black slacks and a black shirt, made his first public appearance. At Childrens Hospital, where his children are recovering, he recalled his wife as a woman passionately committed to the well-being of her children. Her heroism in the last moments of her life was typical, he said.

“I knew well what she was capable of. Although I didn’t see it, I know the bravery she showed. I knew what she had to do. I would expect nothing less from her.”

Galindo said he had retained an attorney and would sue the building’s owner, Juan Jose Ortiz.

Attorney Federico Sayre said fire protection measures were inadequate, and that a blocked exit prevented Norma Galindo and her children from quickly escaping.

George Sellers, an attorney representing Ortiz, said: “The safety equipment in the hotel--the alarms, the escapes, the fire doors--worked, and that’s what saved so many lives.”

Galindo said he feels no anger against the person who set the fire.

“It’s difficult to feel resentment. I already lost my wife,” he said. “I won’t recover anything.”

Investigators include specialists from the Los Angeles Police and Fire departments, the FBI and the ATF’s national response team, which has investigated such high-profile disasters as the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.

Noting that it would take some effort to cart 40 gallons of gasoline into the building, and that someone probably saw that happening, LAPD Cmdr. Garrett Zimmon appealed to the public for help.

Anyone with information is asked to call the LAPD criminal conspiracy section at (213) 473-7474.

*

Times staff writer Kenneth Reich contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Inside the Palomar

This shows the layout of the Palomar Hotel, site of an explosion and fire Aug. 16.

*

Source: City of Los Angeles Fire Dept.