Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire
1982 fatal arson, California, U.S.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire was a 1982 arson that killed 25 people and injured 30 others in Los Angeles, California.[1][2]
Dorothy Mae Apartments, Los Angeles Times image, 1927 | |
 | |
| Date | September 4, 1982 |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Type | Arson fire |
| Motive | Revenge |
| Perpetrator | Humberto Diaz de la Torre |
| Deaths | 25 |
| Injuries | 30 |
| Sentence | 625 years |
The fire occurred on September 4th, 1982. de la Torre started the fire with gasoline and a match in response to an argument with his uncle, who lived in the building.[3] The perpetrator and most of the victims were immigrants from El Salitre, Zacatecas, Mexico.[4] The vast majority of the victims were from four families.[5]
In 1985, Humberto Diaz de la Torre was convicted of starting the fire and sentenced to 625 years in prison.[4]
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.[3]
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]
See also
- Ponet Square Hotel and Apartments fire that killed 19 people led to the enactment of the "Ponet doors ordinance."[9]
