GUILTY CA - Harry Burkhart charged in Hollywood arson spree, 2011

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katydid23 said:
My daughter was born just a couple of weeks after the riots of 92. I was so nervous during that time about not being able to get to the hospital on time. Seems like a million years ago now.

I live up at the Ventura County line now. We have had awful wildfires in the past few years. And then droughts, and then the floods. This is just one more thing trying to prevent us living in paradise. :rose:
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Hey! I think we may be neighbors ;)
 
katydid23 said:
He also might live in that area. It is the only area that he hit on each of the nights. He may even have a permit to park in some of the areas he lit up.
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That's a really good point, especially when we consider the parking permit requirement.

One of the really annoying things about WeHo is that parking permits are not valid for the entire city. For example, if you live in one particular block, your permit is only valid for your particular neighborhood. The only people who could park in each neighborhood would be those with official city vehicles. I need to go back and look at the arson map and compare it with the parking zone map to see if the fires occurred within one particular permit area. This would definitely narrow down the search if investigators wanted to see if it was a WeHo resident.
 
The WeHo fires are in different permit zones, but they are ALL within walking distance of bus stops. They are also close to two Metro stations. I wonder if there's surveillance footage of bus stops and the metro stations? It's very possible that the arsonist took the metro into the Hollywood area from the Valley and caught a bus to get to the fire sights. I know that a few of the fires in that area were reported around 7-8 pm. The buses were definitely running at that time.
 
Not sure if they ruled these out-

2 Burbank fires may be related to rash of L.A.-area blazes

Two fires in Burbank early Saturday morning -- one that consumed a car, the other at an auto repair shop -- may be related to the rash of car blazes hitting the L.A. area, officials say.
The two fires broke out within hours of each other and at around the same time that approximately nine fires were reported in the North Hollywood and Sun Valley areas.

http://articles.glendalenewspress.c...es_1_arson-fires-burbank-fires-structure-fire
 
JBean said:
Not sure if they ruled these out-

2 Burbank fires may be related to rash of L.A.-area blazes

Two fires in Burbank early Saturday morning -- one that consumed a car, the other at an auto repair shop -- may be related to the rash of car blazes hitting the L.A. area, officials say.
The two fires broke out within hours of each other and at around the same time that approximately nine fires were reported in the North Hollywood and Sun Valley areas.

http://articles.glendalenewspress.c...es_1_arson-fires-burbank-fires-structure-fire
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Orlando will be sorry to hear about that.I wonder if they have been connected or not.
 
katydid23 said:
Orlando will be sorry to hear about that.I wonder if they have been connected or not.
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well that is what got me looking. I thought I had heard that there were potentially related fires in Burbank-so I thought I best find a link and confirm.
 
JBean said:
Not sure if they ruled these out-

2 Burbank fires may be related to rash of L.A.-area blazes

Two fires in Burbank early Saturday morning -- one that consumed a car, the other at an auto repair shop -- may be related to the rash of car blazes hitting the L.A. area, officials say.
The two fires broke out within hours of each other and at around the same time that approximately nine fires were reported in the North Hollywood and Sun Valley areas.

http://articles.glendalenewspress.c...es_1_arson-fires-burbank-fires-structure-fire
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I'm starting to wonder if the arsonist(s) have something to do with cars/have an issue with cars. We've got fires in parking garages, carports, and auto repair places in this arson spree. I tried to look at the buildings near the fires in WeHo on google maps to see if their parking garages/carports had security gates in front of them. I was able to see a few properties and it appears that they did not. Many of the apartment buildings in that area have security gates preventing access to their carports/garages. I wonder if there were any fires started at any sites where the suspect would have had to scale/open a gate?
 
marie-chantal said:
I'm starting to wonder if the arsonist(s) have something to do with cars/have an issue with cars. We've got fires in parking garages, carports, and auto repair places in this arson spree. I tried to look at the buildings near the fires in WeHo on google maps to see if their parking garages/carports had security gates in front of them. I was able to see a few properties and it appears that they did not. Many of the apartment buildings in that area have security gates preventing access to their carports/garages. I wonder if there were any fires started at any sites where the suspect would have had to scale/open a gate?
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I was wondering about the same thing---the arsonist having issues with cars. I was wondering if it might be a radical environmental group.
 
On Friday morning, 21 fires were started in a relatively small area around Hollywood and West Hollywood. On Friday night and Saturday morning, 16 more fires were reported. They were similar to the ones in Hollywood but were spread out over a much larger area.

Eight of the fires occurred in North Hollywood, three in the foothill area of the San Fernando Valley, three in the Wilshire Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, one on the Westside and one in Lennox.

http://articles.glendalenewspress.co...structure-fire


It sounds like it might be more than one arsonist. Maybe it is a radical environmental group protesting the heavy reliance on cars in this area. ???
 
katydid23 said:
I was wondering about the same thing---the arsonist having issues with cars. I was wondering if it might be a radical environmental group.
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You might be on to something. The more I look at this pattern, the more I'm starting to think that the Laurel Canyon fires might have been copycats, or else, deliberate personal targets of the arsonist. If this is a radical environmental group, they would probably try to avoid a very delicate area (ecologically speaking) like Laurel Canyon since it would have greater potential to spark a major brush-fire that would easily get out of control. It's very odd that the Laurel Canyon fires didn't get out of control since they're in a very dry, heavily forested (well, forested compared with the flat lands of LA). Either the arsonist knew what they were doing when they set those fires (somehow knew how to set it so it wouldn't get out of control) or it was a copycat with dumb luck.

Cars are a major commonality between each of these fires. LA has been the target of radical environmentalist groups in the past.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-08-...dealerships-dealership-in-west-covina-vandals
 
JBean, I'm not sure that the Burbank fires are connected. Maybe the Rose St. one, but I'm fairly sure that the fire at the car place was not. There has been no breaking and entering in the other 40ish fires, and to do so, it would be a huge break in the pattern. Not to mention that Burbank PD tends to be overmanned, especially on holidays, and any report of a B/E would be met by a show of force that is awesome and scary to behold including K9 and Big Blue - the PDs helicopters).

I do think it's arson, but probably not this particular guy. May be an insurance thing...lots of businesses going under, and it may've been the last day of the last month of an insurance policy.

'Course, I could be thoroughly wrong...been wrong before, and will be wrong again. LOL.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
Herding Cats said:
JBean, I'm not sure that the Burbank fires are connected. Maybe the Rose St. one, but I'm fairly sure that the fire at the car place was not. There has been no breaking and entering in the other 40ish fires, and to do so, it would be a huge break in the pattern. Not to mention that Burbank PD tends to be overmanned, especially on holidays, and any report of a B/E would be met by a show of force that is awesome and scary to behold including K9 and Big Blue - the PDs helicopters).

I do think it's arson, but probably not this particular guy. May be an insurance thing...lots of businesses going under, and it may've been the last day of the last month of an insurance policy.

'Course, I could be thoroughly wrong...been wrong before, and will be wrong again. LOL.

Best-
Herding Cats
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Maybe the owner of the business wanted to get onboard now, when the fire dept was so busy, kwim?
 
katydid23 said:
Maybe the owner of the business wanted to get onboard now, when the fire dept was so busy, kwim?
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That did happen in the Detroit Devil's night fires. Businesses and homeowners in financial straights would take the opportunity to burn their properties down for insurance and blame it on the arson crimes.
 
Herding Cats said:
JBean, I'm not sure that the Burbank fires are connected. Maybe the Rose St. one, but I'm fairly sure that the fire at the car place was not. There has been no breaking and entering in the other 40ish fires, and to do so, it would be a huge break in the pattern. Not to mention that Burbank PD tends to be overmanned, especially on holidays, and any report of a B/E would be met by a show of force that is awesome and scary to behold including K9 and Big Blue - the PDs helicopters).

I do think it's arson, but probably not this particular guy. May be an insurance thing...lots of businesses going under, and it may've been the last day of the last month of an insurance policy.

'Course, I could be thoroughly wrong...been wrong before, and will be wrong again. LOL.

Best-
Herding Cats
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You are probably right.But I think LE is still looking at it as a possibility and nothing has been ruled out.
Also,I noticed the incident maps do not include all the fires-some have been omitted or they are just incomplete. For example, the one at my sons house is not on there.
 
dotr said:
http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=6792
WeHo News exclusive - During the arson attack at the Hollywood and Highland parking structure on New Year's Eve at roughly 7 pm video security cameras may have captured one of the suspects’ images, reports LAPD.

<modsnip>
"
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Man that is big news. dotr, as much as I hate to do it, I have to edit your post to 10% of the article. we have to follow copyright.

I will paraphrase that the suspect is approx 5'8: 200 lbs has been seen at more than one location. mid 30's with a receding hairline and a ponytail. He seems to be light complected and have dark hair. He may be caucasian.
 
Any reports of fires tonight? I hope they catch this creep.
 
A few thoughts:

Cars are definitely a problem for this person or they just like to see cars burning.

IIRC, the Lexus is from the early nineties and wouldn't be worth a whole lot of money right now. So I don't think the person is well off necessarily.

It would seem odd for an environmental group to start fires on cars. Slashing tires or something with a lower negative environmental impact would make more sense.

The area has been chosen for a reason, but why? Is it the ease of access? The type of people who live in that area? A specific target and the other fires are to draw attention away from the one he really wanted to set? One was set next to city hall, does that mean anything? Maybe they used to live in the area and felt they were treated poorly by the residents?

Is it someone who made an insurance claim with their car insurance but was denied and they figure they'll make the insurance company pay? Since it's doubtful they know what insurance company covers each car, they figure that by doing quantity they will at least get some from that company. Maybe they were fired by an insurance company. Is there an insurance company that covers most of the cars in that area?

Just some thoughts.
 
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