LOS ANGELES — Police have arrested several people for a 1993 apartment building fire that killed 10 people, it was announced Saturday.
Those arrested remained jailed, Officer Aareon Jefferson said. He had no other details. Police planned to hold a news conference Monday.
The three-story building in the Westlake district caught fire on May 3, 1993. At the time, police said they believed the blaze was set by gang members kicked off the property for selling drugs.
Several law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that three of the suspects arrested are tied to the notorious 18th Street gang. At the time of the fire, the gang was terrorizing residents of the neighborhood.
The building, packed with mainly poor immigrants from Central America, had inoperable smoke alarms. Investigators found fire doors had been propped or nailed open for ventilation, allowing smoke to surge through the apartments. Seven children were among the dead.
Tenants tried to escape by jumping from windows, scrambling down fire escapes and climbing down bedsheets tied to balconies. At one point, neighbors formed a human chain to pass along children from upper floors.
The dead included three women, two of whom were pregnant, and children as young as 4.
The apartment complex was known for cocaine dealing by a local gang, and the manager had begun reporting the activity to police.
“The local thugs in the area decided that she had to leave, and the fire was set,” Detective Steven Spear said in 1998, after two gang members were arrested and charged with murder. However, the case against them was dropped two years later for lack of evidence.
