Family-owned South LA tire shop catches fire again after prior suspected arsons

A family-owned tire shop in the Vermont-Slauson neighborhood of South Los Angeles went up in flames early Thursday following at least two other fires there which authorities have investigated as suspected arsons.

Arson investigators were sent to the scene after firefighters responded around 3:30 a.m. to the business located in the 6900 block of South Vermont Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Within 21 minutes, authorities said, 28 firefighters managed to put out the flames and keep the blaze from spreading further.

Employees at the business said this is at least the fourth time the tire shop has caught fire. Vermont Tires has been owned by a family in the area for 20 years, according to the owners, who spoke with CBS News Los Angeles after another fire in August. 

It was one of two that happened the same month, both of them being investigated as suspected arsons, according to LAFD. 

On Aug. 29, LAFD received several 911 calls at 3:38 a.m. reporting a fire at the tire shop, the agency said in a statement. Firefighters discovered towering flames upon arrival and managed to put them out within 90 minutes, according to LAFD. 

"Well it is a suspicious fire. That's why you see some of the arson investigators behind us that are combing through the debris and talking to witnesses and looking at the burn patterns," LAFD Captain Erik Scott said at the time, noting that authorities were also taking into consideration the fact that there was another fire at the shop not long before.

Nearly four weeks earlier, on Aug 2., firefighters responded to another blaze just outside the business which LAFD later said, in a statement, had been "intentionally set." It also sparked during the predawn hours. Surveillance video captured a person appearing to throw something into a yard filled with tires next to the shop just before flames broke out.

In drawing a connection between the two August incidents, Scott said there were some similarities investigators were looking into.

"It's certainly a concern," Scott said. "There's a similar pattern of it being, you know, predawn hours at the same location. It appeared to be an exterior-type fire that has moved in."

The cause of those fires, and the latest one on Thursday, has not been released by LAFD.