A young family remains terrified after two arsonists set their South L.A. home on fire, igniting a fiery explosion in the middle of the night.
On Oct. 30, surveillance video captured two dark figures approaching the home in the West Adams neighborhood around 3 a.m.
The homeowner, Robert, was asleep while his wife was tending to their 9-month-old baby.
The suspects arrived at the home while carrying two large buckets filled with gasoline and possibly other flammable liquids. They also had rolls of toilet paper for a fuse and an unknown ignition source.
The suspects ignited the blaze and are seen quickly running away from the sudden explosion of flames. Robert said he was woken up after hearing his wife calling for help.
“I woke up to her yelling, ‘Call 911! There’s a fire!’” Robert told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “When I turned the front corner, where this door used to be, it was just completely engulfed in flames.”
Robert said he grabbed a fire extinguisher to spray the burning door, then ran outside and grabbed the garden hose to continue dousing the flames. They were able to escape without injury.
He and his wife are first-time homeowners who moved into the West Adams house less than two months ago. They’re still shaken and said they have no idea why someone would target their family.
“We have no bad blood, no beef with anybody we can think of,” he said. “We reached out to the previous owners to see if they had any experiences like this in the past or any tenants who had issues as they rented it out before we bought it. Right now we’re just grasping at straws.”
The couple is staying with family for the time being and said the incident has left them frightened to return home. Robert did not want to reveal his full name out of safety concerns.
“I keep hearing my wife yelling and I’m just overcome with chills,” he said. “We don’t really have any plans to leave, but it’s hard to imagine putting our son to sleep here in the future and feeling safe and confident in doing that.”
The incident is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Arson Unit.
Anyone with information on the case or surveillance footage of the suspects is asked to call the LAPD at 1-877-527-3247 or the LAFD at 213-485-6095.
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