Speculation, Blight, and Fire Revisited
As it turns out, the story gets even worse.
City Attorney candidate John McKinney called out the preventable fire at 509 North St. Andrews Place in a recent video. In a related Reddit thread, Redditor u/flyman241 posted the following:
You should look into 570 N Normandie - the developer who bought it left it open intentionally, resulting in a crazy squatting situation. The 1920’s house was full of stuff from the previous tenants and there were people in and out 24/7 taking everything. The developer refused to secure the property.
It burned down shortly after - I talked to the mail man who called in the fire and he said he saw people pull up and light it on fire.
His description of those people matched two guys I had met days before who showed up and ran German shepherds through the building to clear it of squatters.
(Bolding and spacing are mine.)
I’ll be following up with LAFD to see if this was ever investigated as an arson case.
I’m not holding my breath, of course.