 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]
