Update: LAFD says condo fire accidental

Update from the Los Angeles Fire Department blog: "Fire was 'accidental,' sparked by welders torch. Loss being tabulated."

From the the L.A. Times on the fire on the construction site at the Warner Center: "It took about 200 firefighters just over an hour to extinguish a fire at a five-story condominium complex under construction at Warner Center in Woodland Hills, fire officials said."

More: "The structure, which is about a block long, was failing in some places because of the fire, LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey said."

For the record, commenter Michael Snyder had this story nailed before noon, when he wrote, "From the picture and the area the fire allegedly started my money's on either a roofer's torch or an overheated tar kettle. Roofers use that infamous stinking kettle to soften the tar used to seal flat roofs and that material will flash into flame. The torch us used to melt hardening tar so it will flow & seal the roof." Thanks, Michael.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo Credit: KTLA

Comments

[Laker]

I wonder how fast, if at all, will the builder continue building this complex...
There are so many units in these complexes and asking prices so high, i was wondering who will buy those for $500-600,000...
Woodland Hills is foreclosure infested so prices are getting depressed as we speak...

[gerald]

This could be our LA metaphor for the housing bubble popping, a fire at condo construction site in the Valley compared to the falling crane in New York city.

[Michael Snyder]

So, let's see here. We have a closet arsonist and two insurance fraudsters listed in the post. That is if you're to believe as I do that most folks will show you where they'd go if given the chance when they're casting aspersions around.

If you've ever built a campfire you know it's the ventilation that controls the speed and ferocity of a blaze. Buildings under construction are well build tinder piles until they're sealed from the elements. That's why it'll be difficult if not imposable to limit this fire to the top of the building.

From the picture and the area the fire allegedly started my money's on either a roofer's torch or an overheated tar kettle. Roofers use that infamous stinking kettle to soften the tar used to seal flat roofs and that material will flash into flame. The torch us used to melt hardening tar so it will flow & seal the roof.

So long as nobody's hurt, the rest is replaceable.

[CD]

How many of those condos were pre-sold ?How many had already cancelled?

[dickcheney says so?]

So, let's see here. We have a closet arsonist and two insurance fraudsters listed in the post. That is if you're to believe as I do that most folks will show you where they'd go if given the chance when they're casting aspersions around.

Posted by: Michael Snyder |

This is classic, MS logic. Lemme see if I follow:

Anybody who speculates on whhere a crime was commited, actually perpetuated such crimes themselves. Therefore, only criminals can honestly speculate on potential criminality of..well anything.

Following, from this picture, he sees clearly what has happened, Who needs investigators?

It was simply a construction worker's fault and that simple fact alone, (again, completely evidenced by that picture), precludes any speculation that the fire was purposefully started.

And shall I take it to the last natural 'michaelsnyder' logical step and say: anyone who rejects his holy logic is clearly delusional.

How did I do?

lol...

[matthew]

Hasn't anyone blamed the ELF or other environmentalists yet? Or are the insurance-arsonists in the northwest the only ones smart enough to go that route so far?

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

It's going to be one long scorching summer. I can't remember the last time it's this warm around the Spring Equinox.

[NoWayinLA]

Developer to welder: If you accidentally weld too close to the tar kettle, I will accidentally drop a signed, otherwise blank check.

[Michael Snyder]

dickcheney says so?
Pretty good for dick cheney logic...
But then he's still insisting on the existence of WMDs in Iraq.

[sunsetbeachguy]

Michael Snyder, well at least a roofer's torch is plausible, but a tar kettle isn't.

Bituminous built up roofs haven't been allowed in California since the 2005 re-write of Title 24.

No need for tar kettles on any new construction.

My money is on a careless plumber, but arson shouldn't be ruled out.

[Michael Snyder]

sunsetbeachguy
Thanks, I didn't know that. Looks like the LAFD called it a welder's torch anyway. Any spark in a pinch...
Bottom line is everybody went home to their families.

[sandra m]

This is yet another home development under construction destroyed by fire. I hope the insurance investigators cast a wide net looking into perpetrators. When eco-terrorists were blamed for one of the fires, I immediately started to wonder whether, in this housing downturn, the culprits were really beneficiaries of the insurance payout.