Police: Auto repair shop fire may be coincidence
Police say a blaze that ripped through an auto repair shop in Burbank early Saturday may not be related to rash of car fires that have swept through L.A. and portions of the San Fernando Valley.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the blaze that was reported about 1 a.m. Saturday at the shop in the 2800 block of San Fernando Road, but firefighters said it appeared the blaze was intentionally set.
Authorities, though, are treating it as a separate incident from the car fire that was set a short time later in the 2100 block of Rose Street. That fire, reported at about 2:20 a.m., consumed a late-model Corvette and appears to be linked to the at least 45 fires set in the greater Los Angeles area since Friday, according to Burbank Fire Marshal Frank Walbert.
No injuries were reported in either fire incident.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles authorities have detained a “person of interest,” but have released few details about crime scenes and the methods for starting the blazes.
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Two fires hit Burbank as L.A. grapples with car blazes
-- Mark Kellam and Jason Wells, Times Community News
Photo: Burbank firefighters contain a blaze set an auto repair shop early Saturday that authorities now say may not be linked to the rash of fires that have hit the greater Los Angeles area. Credit: Ross A. Benson