@danilolee

After the fire.

Fire erupted in a multi-story building near Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica today.

The blaze was confirmed to the Weekly by a Santa Monica fire official, but she did not have time to give details.

A Twitter user named Kiara says ...

L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich just got told.

In a new seven-page letter from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office to City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's office (embedded below), mayoral counsel Brian Currey claims the latter is holding the public "hostage" by advising the L.A. Fire Department to withhold certain information from the media.

And the mayor apparently wants this fight to be public...

LA Daily News

Just a sec, y'all.

In fact, he said, firefighters are only arriving to the scene within 5 minutes about 60 percent of the time. (Then he enacted a media blackout on the details of all new injury-related incidents, and tried to blame it on the City Attorney. It's almost like he wants bad press.)

Since the LAFD itself is being so damn cagey...

joinlafd.org

False advertising?

An anonymous blog called LAFDDeployment.com was created in summer 2011. It encouraged firefighters to...

Flickr

Chief Cummings with the mayor.

It was terrifying enough when L.A. Fire Department Chief Brian L. Cummings recently admitted to lying about his department's emergency response times to L.A. City Hall, leading to more dangerous cuts for LAFD.

But the worst possible thing he could do, now that taxpayers have learned that their firefighters are only meeting the national response-time standard 60 percent of the time, is cram the concerning data in a file cabinet and swallow the key.

Carlos Morales via Twitter

"Someone hit a Fire Hydrant in Rose [Hills]"

That's all it took for an epic, 10-storyish geyser...

The blaze at 1041 N. Orange Avenue in Hollywood (a.k.a. 1041 Production Studios) was reported about 7 p.m. and was put out in 18 minutes, according to the LAFD's Matt Spence.

He said it took 72 firefighters ...

LA Daily News

Unrelated conspiracy theory: The sinkholes strike back.

While current City Controller Wendy Greuel plays catchup with KCET and irons her zillion bad suits, a fresh-faced citywatcher who hopes to move into her office come 2013 hasn't wasted any time in pumping out his first audit.

He calls it a "citizens audit"...

A huge procession was held downtown in memory of L.A. firefighter Glenn Allen.

But now his mourners may have a reason to get angry:

Gerhard Albert Becker, the 48-year-old German-born architect who designed the house and oversaw its construction (as well as lived in it), is being charged with involuntary manslaughter...

Is someone trying to burn L.A.'s majestic mormon temple?

Awesomely, the department has a "house of worship task force," and they're on the scene this morning to investigate the origins of the blaze, an LAFD spokesman tells Patch. (As is "the standard response for any fire at a religious site.") It began at about 1 a.m. and was extinguished a half-hour later.

The Westwood temple is the second largest...

CBS / OnScene TV

Burkhart.

Investigators believe the fire-starter placed the logs on top of the front tires of vehicles, below their fenders, where they would smolder, spark up the flammable rubber and eventually torch the engine bays, which are filled with such accelerants as oil and gas.

It's not clear when the suspect allegedly lit the logs: before placing them or after. But the use of such logs would solve one problem for a suspected arsonist:

John McCoy/Daily News

Don't let this happen to you.

But there will always be those of us who, whether out of sheer laziness or lingering nostalgia...

Gauri Ma

It turns out that Harry Burkhart, the man suspected in a 53-fire spree in Los Angeles, lived in that West Coast city in recent years.

Did he do it?

@GigiGraciette

Results of Monday morning arson fire in WeHo.

The man who authorities say terrorized L.A. with a three-day series of arson fires has formally been charged for causing most of the spree.

Harry Burkhart, the 24-year-old with apparent German citizenship, was hit this afternoon with "28 counts of arson of property and nine counts of arson of an inhabited structure," said District Attorney Steve Cooley.

Burkhart was scheduled ...

CBS2

Burkhart.

The man who terrorized L.A. for three nights with a series of 53 arson fires turned out to be a 24-year-old from Germany identified as Harry Burkhart, at least according to authorities.

"I hate America" were the words he reportedly uttered after he was pulled out of his car during a traffic stop at Sunset Boulevard near Fairfax Avenue shortly after 3 this morning following another outbreak of fires in nearby West Hollywood.

Burkhart was booked into jail at 1:48 p.m. and held in lieu of $250,000, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's inmate information database.

LAPD

The L.A. arson fires have sated the city's everlasting expectation for the criminally bizarre, but so far there's no Michael Connelly ending to this 53 55 50-blaze spree.

In fact it appears that the firebug might have struck again overnight as the Los Angeles Fire Department reported a "suspicious" blaze at 1:13 a.m. in the 1700 block of North Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Yep, it was another vehicle-in-a-carport fire that the department seemed to quash before it got ugly. And then there were more fires in Sherman Oaks.

This as the LAPD released video of a person of interest:

homeaway.com.au

The canyon home that inspired "Love Street."

Luckily, no residents have been reported hurt thus far. However, one firefighter was sent to the hospital in the wee hours this morning with (non-life-threatening) injuries after fighting a blaze at 8021 Rothdell Trail, says Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott.

Fans of L.A. rock legend Jim Morrison, frontman for the Doors, might recognize that address:

MTV

Beavis.

He allegedly set at least four fires before he was nabbed by a good Samaritan and held for police, authorities said.

It all appeared to start ...

Tumblr

Benny done growed up.

Add a starring role in the cult childhood flick of a generation, and you've got Internet gold.

"Happy birthday to Los Angeles firefighter Mike Vitar aka Benny 'The Jet' Rodriguez from the super-awesome film The Sandlot" ...