A suspected arsonist is at large after setting fires in the communities of Mount Washington, Silver Lake and Glassell Park, Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) officials said.
One of the suspected fires broke out in front of a Mount Washington home last Friday, and the terrifying moment was captured on video.
“I was scared, I started shouting fire! My nephew grabbed my parents to get them out of the house, ”described Walter Moguel, the owner who had to remove his parents from the property as he struggled to put out the flames in his cypress trees in the front yard with his fire extinguisher. .
A raging fire caused several families to flee their apartments in the early hours of Wednesday. Some have lost all their possessions.
“Six of them were completely on fire,” Moguel recalls. “It was the scariest scene ever because they almost felt like they were 2 or 3 feet away from me.”
The Mount Washington resident said damage to his property was limited thanks to the ability for firefighters to get to the scene quickly.
But after the fire was extinguished, what intrigued Moguel was the surveillance video footage of his neighbor across the street from the burnt trees.
“You see a person crossing the street, just a shadow of a person,” said Moguel, whose videos also showed sparks flying from the trees moments after the suspicious person left.
Authorities believe the arson suspect may be linked to other crimes. The LAFD confirmed that there had been several suspicious fires in the area.
“The firefighter was there (at the time of the fire) and he said, ‘No, you have an arsonist in the neighborhood,'” Moguel said. “It happened in the neighborhood. I had no idea”.
Alma Ramírez and her seven-year-old daughter Gladys had been in hospital since Christmas 2022, after a fire at their home in Oxnard took the life of the father of the family.
Other residents were worried about recent activity and said they hoped the person would be caught before more damage was done.
“It’s beyond terrifying. It’s not,” said Mt. Washington resident Elena Kelly. . »
This story first appeared on Telemundo 52’s sister station NBCLA. Click on here to read this story in English.