Sandra Clark
Special to the Daily Press
A pair of residential fires in Venice have set residents on edge following the recent destruction of a home on the Canals.
For the second time in less than a week, firefighters were called to 657 East Flower Avenue for fire. This time the home was destroyed by the flames.
On Tuesday morning, firefighters were sent to the vacant home at 5:32 a.m. and extinguished the flames in 23 minutes, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
According to LAFD, the 1922 house had previously been the site of a fire on Friday, Oct. 21.
Firefighters said the home was bordered up, but there was visible evidence that occupants had been staying there. Neighbors confirmed on Monday that squatters had been staying in the home and that they had reached out multiple times to get them removed including last Tuesday when residents in the area called the Venice Neighborhood Council to express their growing frustration.
The home is in the same area where a growing encampment has taken over at the corner of Flower and Lincoln Blvd.
Several hours after the first fire, a second Venice home was destroyed in a fire around 1:20 p.m. Tuesday on the 800 block of Brooks Avenue.
Upon arrival, the bulk of the fire was burning in the attic. Firefighters extinguished the flames in 22 minutes, without injury.
Six fire trucks and an ambulance were on the scene, along with the homeowner and her adult son who had lived at the property for more than a decade.
The cause of both fires are under investigation and they come within three weeks of a fire that torched homes in the Venice Canals on Oct. 2.
It took over 100 firefighters to put out the blaze and the fire damaged five homes, including a three-story home under construction.
Neighbors said the under construction home where a fire began had become a fixture for transients since building at the location started and the sprawling structure housed an unlocked porta-potty that many people used.
Published in partnership with the Westside Current.
