Nobody Got the Address Right on the Benton Way Fire
LAFD and various news outlets (that I will NOT be linking to) reported a carport fire at 214 Benton Way.
All of them had the wrong address.
There is a 214 Benton Way, but it’s part of a multifamily complex that has a couple of small garages out in front.
A neighbor reached out with photos. The fire took place at THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR, 206 Benton Way.
It’s a big, sunny yellow, two-story house, now boarded up. You can’t miss it.
In sharp contrast to my usual content, this doesn’t appear to be a typical case of “neglected/vacant house catches on fire, probably from squatters”. The few code complaints on fire are nearly a decade old, the house wasn’t listed for sale and had no permits on file, and the neighbor reports recently seeing a family living inside the house (hope they’re okay). Street View photos (which are admittedly a bit dated) show what appears to be a well-maintained house.
206 Benton Way doesn’t have a garage. There isn’t even a driveway. The house was built in 1907, when few Angelenos had cars, and it’s perched well above street level. The house is accessed by a (gated) staircase. Satellite photos do show some sort of outbuilding (back house? Storage shed? Laundry room?) behind the house, but with no driveway and no alley, you’d have to lift a car in and out with a crane, so I doubt that the building in question is a garage.
Now, I can understand LAFD getting the occasional address or building type wrong - they’re busy putting out fires and saving lives (ESPECIALLY in Westlake). The occasional detail may get muddled.
News outlets, however? They are supposed to know better. And the sad fact of the matter is that a lot of local news sites don’t seem to do much, if ANY, fact-checking.
We deserve better media outlets. Period.