Fire investigators seek arsonist who set fire to Lake Forest apartment-complex office
Fire investigators are searching for a suspect who set ablaze the leasing office of an apartment complex in Lake Forest causing $100,000 in damage.
The suspect was caught on camera dousing the outside of the building with a yet-determined substance, and fire officials are hoping the public can help them find him and prevent another fire.
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The department’s accelerant-detecting canine, Freedom, was taken to the scene after the early Tuesday, Jan. 14, blaze and identified areas where there were fire-starting substances, said Capt. Shaun Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority during a Wednesday news conference at the agency’s headquarters in Irvine.
Surveillance video from the complex shows a suspect, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, walking up to the entrance of the office at the RiverOaks Apartments on El Toro Road and throwing clear liquid from a plastic bottle onto the front door, then spilling a trail to the sidewalk.
On the video the man seems to spark the blaze, which quickly ignited. Fire offficials said he used a match.
No one was in the builiding, but nearby residents were sleeping. The fire burned for about an hour before someone called for help at around 1 a.m., Miller said.
Firefighters were able to quickly put it out, though not before there was major damage. The building’s entrance was charred black. So was much of the roof. Investigators were determining at a lab what accelereant the suspect used.
“There’s occupied apartments approximately 50 feet away from this building that contain numerous families that were certainly put at risk by this individual,” Miller said.
He was described by authorities as a man between 5-feet-9 and 6-feet-tall. He weighs 150 to 180 pounds.
“We need people to help us identify this arsonist because typically … an arsonist doesn’t stop at one,” Capt. Tony Bommarito said.
“We can speculate whether he’s done it before and whether he’s going to do this again, but we want to assume the worst,” the captain said. “So we want to catch this guy.”
Anyone with information about the case was asked to call fire investigators at 714-573-6709.