Match Lit Because 'It Was Too Dark' Sparks South LA Apartment Fire
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — One person has been taken into custody after allegedly lighting a match that sparked an apartment fire in South LA because it was too dark.
The fire broke out at about 12:30 a.m. on the first floor of a back house in the area of 83rd Street and McKinley Avenue. The owners of the home, who live in the front house on the property, initially tried to put out the fire with garden hoses with some help from a neighbor.
"Oh my God, my house, oh my God!" the homeowner was heard wailing.
No one was hurt in the fire, and everyone in both the back house and the front house, including an 8-year-old boy and two dogs, got out OK.
"When I got here, I was pretty much like spazzing out because I thought about all my stuff up there," Walter Tyner, the upstairs tenant and son of the homeowner, said. "Luckily nothing happened to anybody, physically or anything."
The girlfriend of the tenant whose apartment burned told photographers on the scene she accidentally started the fire by lighting a match because there was no electricity. Authorities have not confirmed who was taken into custody.
The top unit of the back home was damaged but not believed to a total loss. However, much of the bottom unit has been burned through.