1982 — Sep 4, Arson Fire (murder), Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel, Los Angeles, CA-24-25

lornajarrettblanchard September 4, 1982

— 25 Los Angeles Times. “It was as if the devil himself lived there.” March 22, 1988.

— 24 Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 28.

— 24 Los Angeles Fire Department. Historical Archive. “The Dorothy Mae Apartment Fire.”

— 24 NFPA. Summary Investigation Report: Dorothy Mae Apartment Hotel Fire. 1982.

— 24 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, p. 6.

Narrative Information

Los Angeles Fire Department: “The Dorothy Mae Apartment is a four-story, 50 ft. wide X 140 ft. deep, center hallway, of brick-joist construction that was built in 1927. Due to its location on an inclined lot, the first floor has only a foyer and boiler/laundry room located at the front of the building. The upper three floors contain 43 residential apartments occupied by approximately 170 people, almost all of whom were Spanish speaking. The building had the required Ponet doors and smoke detectors installed.

“ANALYSIS OF THE FIRE

“The fire started in the second floor hallway, just inside the front Ponet door by the use of a flammable liquid. It appears that it burned unnoticed for some time. It is not clear how occupants first became aware of the fire. Once alerted, occupants started evacuating, using the hallways. Indications are that a flashover or back-draft occurred, resulting in 18 fatalities on the second floor and third floor.

“The Ponet doors at the front stairwell were closed, as was the Ponet door on the fourth floor at the rear stairs. The Ponet doors from the second floor hallway to the rear stairs, and the fourth floor stairs to the exterior fire escape were open. This allowed the fire to travel from the front of the second floor to the rear stairs, and the fourth floor stairs to the exterior fire escape were open. This allowed the fire to travel from the front of the second floor to the rear, up the stairs to the third floor hallway, and up the stairs to the fourth floor, and out the rear of the building on the fourth floor.

“The Fire Department received a delayed alarm to this incident. The flashover/backdraft occurred prior to the Fire Department’s arrival. Upon our arrival there were indications of a small fire at the rear, not the true extent of the fire that had taken place, nor the large number of fatalities and injuries that had occurred.

“ACTIONS TAKEN:

“First arriving companies discovered the true situation upon entering the building at the rear. From the reports of bodies stacked in the stairwell, additional resources were requested. Companies were committed to extinguishing the residual fire, rescuing trapped occupants from windows, and a Medical Division was implemented to take care of the many injuries.

“In the later stages of the incident, the fire that had transmitted to the ceiling of the first floor boiler room started to run the walls of the adjacent elevator shaft and up to the two apartments over the boiler room via an air shaft, was dug out and extinguished.

“There have been 24 fatalities to date from this incident; 18 pronounced at the scene, and 6 within one week that died in hospitals. There were two Firefighter injuries.

“Twenty Companies and eight Rescue Ambulances were used at this incident. The Medical Division triaged, treated, and transported 29 casualties in 45 minutes….” (Los Angeles Fire Department. Historical Archive. “The Dorothy Mae Apartment Fire.”)

National Fire Protection Association: “On September 4, 1982, an early morning fire in the Dorothy Mae Apartment Hotel located in the City of Los Angeles, California, resulted in the deaths of 24 occupants, critical injury to another and assorted non-critical injuries to 32 other occupants and two fire fighters. The fire, reported to the fire department at 4:27 a.m., has been determined to be incendiary in origin by investigators of the Los Angeles City Fire Department Arson Investigation Unit. A 19-year old suspect was arrested and charged on December 23, 1982 with setting the fire. Most of the occupants in the apartment building were from a single town in Mexico and many were inter-related. Ten of the occupants who died in the fire were related to the suspect.

“The fire was reportedly set in the second floor exit access corridor of the building. Fire and smoke were able to spread from the point of origin throughout two of the three exit access corridors due to several fire doors in the north stairway being in the open position during the fire. Nineteen of the occupants who died in the fire were located in the north stairway on the second and third floor landings and in the third floor exit access corridor. They had been attempting to escape from the building when they were engulfed by flames when the fire “exploded” enveloping the north stairway in flames.

“The exact number of occupants present in the building at the time of the fire is not known; however, through their investigation, the fire department has determined that there were approximately 170 occupants in the building at the time of the fire. The fire department rescued more than 50 trapped occupants over ladders during the incident.

“Factors contributing to the fatalities in this fire include:

Location of the point of origin of the incendiary fire within an exit component,

Use of a flammable liquid which provided a rapid and intense build-up of the fire,

Presence of combustible plywood paneling on walls of the central exit access corridors which provided the fuel load for the continued growth and spread of the fire,

Several fire doors in the north stairway were blocked open and/or failed to be maintained,

Delay in detection of the developing fire and subsequent notification, in a timely manner, of occupants and,

Delay in the notification of the fire department.”

(NFPA. Summary Investigation Report: Dorothy Mae Apartment Hotel Fire. 1982.)

Newspaper

March 22, LA Times: “Near Sunset Boulevard and Figueroa Street, just north of downtown Los Angeles, there is a flurry of construction work taking place these days. More than 400 apartments are being built to meet the growing demand for housing in the area.

“But in the midst of the hammering and sawing, a piece of vacant land at 821 W. Sunset Blvd. remains untouched–dwarfed by the activity around it. Upon it once sat a 43-unit apartment building, which became the scene of one of the deadliest residential fires in city history.

“The Dorothy Mae Apartment Hotel was swept by flames early in the morning of Sept. 4, 1982. Nineteen people, including an unborn baby and its mother, perished as the fire roared through the 50-year-old, three-story structure. Thirty-six other people were injured, and, within 10 days, six of them had died. Only the 1973 Stratford Apartments fire, in which 25 people were killed and 52 were injured, was as deadly, Los Angeles fire officials said.

“The Dorothy Mae fire devastated what was literally an extended family. The building was informally known as “Little Salitre” because virtually all its nearly 200 residents came from the rural town of El Salitre in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. Many fire victims were related to one another.

“Authorities said the inferno was a case of arson–the result of an argument between the manager and a nephew, who lived in the building, over the latter’s membership in a street gang, his smoking of marijuana and spray painting of graffiti. Upset, the nephew, Humberto de la Torre, then 19, brought a dollar’s worth of gasoline, threw it on the floor of an apartment and then ignited it with a match, investigators said. The flames spread quickly, engulfing the building. The uncle, Mateo de la Torre, was unhurt in the blaze.

“Humberto de la Torre was arrested the following December in Texas, pleaded guilty to 25 counts of murder and in 1985 was sentenced to 625 years in prison. He is now serving his sentence at Folsom Prison.

“The fire rendered even the land itself practically useless for a while, its owners, a group of businessmen holding it for investment, said.

“It was as if the devil himself lived there,” said attorney Hiran Kwan, a member of HLL Management Co. that owned the Dorothy Mae, expecting the land’s proximity to the city’s growing Chinatown would make it an increasingly valuable site.

“Kwan said his group found little interest in its plans to build a new apartment house or hotel on the lot. He blamed adverse publicity stemming from the fire and false rumors that owners were going to be prosecuted because fire officials had found unsafe conditions that might have contributed to the toll. (Fire Department records showed the building had generally been kept up to city fire code standards and had been cited in the past for only minor violations.)

“Kwan’s group, which is a major player in the current round of construction near Sunset and Figueroa, sold the Dorothy Mae land in 1984 for $500,000 to another group of businessmen, headed by Chinatown banker Kenneth Wong.

“Wong said his group, U.P. Investment Inc., wants to use the Dorothy Mae site as part of a major hotel and a shopping center development along Sunset. The group is trying to put together financing for the $19-million project, said Wong, board chairman of United Pacific Bank.” (Los Angeles Times. “It was as if the devil himself lived there.” March 22, 1988.)

Sources

Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007.

Los Angeles Fire Department. Historical Archive. “The Dorothy Mae Apartment Fire.” Accessed 8-10-2010 at: http://www.lafire.com/famous_fires/MajorIncident-index.htm

Los Angeles Times. “It was as if the devil himself lived there.” 3-22-1988. Accessed 5-12-2017 at: http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-22/local/me-1684_1_dorothy-mae

National Fire Protection Association. Summary Investigation Report: Dorothy Mae Apartment Hotel Fire, Los Angeles, CA, September 4, 1982, 24 Fatalities. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1982.

National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. Patterson, NY: NFSA, November 1999, 8 pages. Accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/data/File/docs/College%20Dorm/Administrators/F1%20-%20FIRE%20SPRINKLER%20FACTS.pdf