![]() Dorothy Mae Apartments, Los Angeles Times image, 1927 | |
Date | September 4, 1982 |
---|---|
Coordinates | 34°03′46″N118°14′46″W / 34.0628°N 118.246°W |
Type | Arson fire |
Motive | Revenge |
Perpetrator | Humberto Diaz de la Torre |
Casualties | |
25 killed | |
30 injured | |
Sentence | 625 years |
The Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire was a September 4, 1982, arson that killed 25 people in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. [1] An additional 30 people were injured. [2]
In 1985, Humberto Diaz de la Torre was convicted of starting the fire and sentenced to 625 years in prison. [3] de la Torre started the fire with gasoline and a match in response to an argument with his uncle, who lived in the building. [4] The perpetrator and most of the victims were immigrants from El Salitre, Zacatecas, Mexico. [3] The vast majority of the victims were from four families. [5]
The Dorothy Mae building, located at 821 Sunset Boulevard, was constructed primarily of bricks and had been opened to tenants in 1927. [6] [7] The 43-unit building housed nearly 200 people. [4]
The Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire was the impetus for the 1984 passage of a fire sprinkler law known as the Dorothy Mae ordinance. [2] The Dorothy Mae ordinance "requires all pre-1943 residential buildings of R-1, Occupancy, three or more stories in height, to meet certain specified retroactive fire safety requirements." [8]
The November 15, 1973, Stratford Apartments fire also killed 25 people in Los Angeles. [5] The 1970 Ponet Square Hotel and Apartments fire that killed 19 people led to the enactment of the "Ponet doors ordinance." [9]
The MGM Grand fire occurred on Friday, November 21, 1980, at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The fire killed 85 people, most through smoke inhalation. The fire began from a refrigerated pastry display case in one of the restaurants, located on the first floor. Fire engulfed the resort's casino, and smoke travelled into the hotel tower.
The Happy Land fire was an act of arson that killed 87 people on March 25, 1990, in the Bronx in New York City, United States. The 87 victims were trapped in the unlicensed Happy Land social club, located at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the West Farms section of the Bronx. Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival, many of them part of the Garifuna American community. Cuban refugee Julio González, whose former girlfriend was employed at the club, was arrested soon afterward and ultimately convicted of arson and murder.
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Westlake, also known as the Westlake District, is a residential and commercial neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California, United States. It was developed in the 1920s. Many of its elegant mansions have been turned into apartments and many new multiple-occupancy buildings have been constructed.
Skid Row is the unofficial name for a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles officially known as Central City East.
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The Garden Court Apartments was a four-story, 190-room luxury apartment complex on Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The complex was notable for its history, tenants, and luxurious nature.
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The Marco Polo condo fire was a high-rise fire that occurred at 2:17 p.m. on July 14, 2017, in the 36-story Marco Polo condominium building at 2333 Kapiolani Boulevard in the McCully-Mōʻiliʻili neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. 4 people were killed, and 13 others were injured. Over 200 units were damaged or destroyed giving the destruction of the building at more than $100 million. Additionally, concern about the abatement of asbestos, which was built into the Marco Polo structure, is under investigation by the state of Hawai'i's Department of Health and Department of Labor's workplace safety division.
On the night of December 28, 2017, a fire tore through an apartment building in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Thirteen people died, and fourteen others were injured. At the time, it was the city's deadliest fire in 25 years, being surpassed a little over four years later by another apartment fire in the Bronx that killed seventeen people.
In 2005, three major fires occurred in Paris, France, killing 48 people, the majority of whom were African immigrants.
The Alpine Motel Apartments fire occurred in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 21, 2019. The three-story building, constructed in 1972, had failed several fire inspections and received numerous code enforcement complaints in the years prior to the fire. Some residents did not have working heaters and were using their kitchen stoves for warmth, which led to the fire. It killed six residents and injured 13 others. It is the deadliest fire to occur in Las Vegas city limits. As a result, the city increased its inspections of older apartment buildings.
On the morning of January 9, 2022, a high-rise fire killed seventeen people, including eight children, at the Twin Parks North West, Site 4, high-rise apartment building in the Bronx, New York City, United States. Forty-four people were injured, and thirty-two with life-threatening injuries were sent to five different borough hospitals. Fifteen were in critical condition the day after the fire.
The Ponet Square Hotel and Apartments fire was a 1970 multiple-fatality building fire in Los Angeles, California, United States. The fire broke out before dawn on Sunday, September 13, 1970, and swept through the four-story, 86-unit building, which had been constructed around 1910. The cause of the fire was arson.
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