Neighboring homes sustained minor damages from fire
OCEAN PARK Fire officials are investigating the cause behind a fire last week that nearly destroyed a beach-side home undergoing extensive renovation.
A single-family house at 152 Hart Avenue erupted in flames Friday evening, plumes of smoke pumping out of the home located less than one block from the Ocean Park beach, according to several eyewitnesses. Santa Monica Fire Department responded to the building fire at approximately 9:42 p.m., the blaze extinguished less than an hour later with the help of one Los Angeles Fire Department company, according to news reports.
“That building is a total loss,” said Santa Monica Fire Capt. Scott Ziegert on Monday.
According to city building permits, the owner of the home is listed as Bnedict Cheyann.
Mike Russo, who lives on the corner of Neilson Way and Hart Avenue, said he smelled a lighter fluid-like scent early Friday evening and shrugged it off, thinking a neighbor was having a barbecue.
After returning from a walk with his wife and dog in the neighborhood shortly after 9 p.m., Russo’s living room was illuminated with red light from a fire truck. Surprised, he went outside and saw that a building just three doors down was covered in flames.
City Hall building inspectors deemed the structure as unstable on Saturday, ordering the adjacent neighbors to vacate their residences until further notice. Unable to reach the building’s owner, city officials went ahead and contracted Har-Bro Construction to stabilize the building. The neighbors were allowed back in on Sunday, according to Ben Yousefi, the assistant building official.
The company boarded and shored-up the building, said Mark Savinksky, the director of business development for Har-Bro Construction.
Following the fire, neighbors speculated the cause of the fire, some believing it was a homeless man who had been living in the home and started the blaze when he was cooking. Others believe the fire was a result of arson after learning a gasoline can was discovered on site.
A neighbor who lives directly across the street reportedly saw a suspicious individual leaving the site before the fire, Russo said.
Fire investigators haven’t determined whether the fire was the work of an arsonist. Ziegert added that it isn’t uncommon to find a gas can on a construction work site since much of the equipment does operate on gas.
Dorothy Thatcher has lived in a single-family home directly west of the scene of the fire for the past 41 years. She too smelled a lighter-fluid type stench in her living room.
She wasn’t aware of the fire until another neighbor — who lives directly to the east of the home — came banging on her door.
None of the neighboring homes sustained serious damage with the exception of a multi-unit condominium, whose windows facing the fire were broken.
“It’s a miracle,” Thatcher said on Monday.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 7, 2007. Read the original PDF.