(The AEGIS Alliance) – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – More than 300 charges have now been filed that are misdemeanor against the man who owns three businesses and four buildings after a downtown Los Angeles explosion incident at the location of a massive structure fire where a dozen firefighters suffered injuries.
The blaze happened on May 16, there’s a video of the incident that shows first responders who scrambled to move away from the building that contains shops which includes Green Buddha, Smoke Tokes, Bio Hazard, and Green Buddha. Firefighters described the flames as being very intense and that it melted through their helmets and damaged some of the fire engines, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Steve Sungho Lee is the building owner of where the fire started and faces up to 68 years behind bars, along with fines estimated at costing thousands of dollars, according to a statement on Friday by City Attorney Mike Feuer. Conspiracy to endanger public health for reasons that include failing to identify aerosols, failing to maintain aisles, failing to issue hazmat warnings, failing to display no-smoking signs, and failing to acquire a permit for the facility, these are some of the charges against Steve Sungho Lee.
The blaze rapidly spread to a different building of Lee’s, where the businesses Bio Hazard and Green Buddha are located.
The blaze could be seen from miles away, resulting in an investigation that discovered safety and fire code violations
Lee’s two other buildings were also found to be in code violation, and it was found that all four of his buildings contained hazardous materials that were illegally stored, the City Attorney’s Office said.
The Smoke Tokes business operator is also facing charged and could spend up to 41.5 years in prison, along with fines that are estimated to cost thousands of dollars. The maximum penalties for Green Buddha and Bio Hazard stand at 43.5 years in prison.
“The Boyd Street Fire was a devastating incident that could have easily turned into an epic tragedy for the LAFD,” LAFD Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said.
Terrazas continued and said, “Thanks to the work of our arson investigators, the Fire Prevention Bureau, the LAPD, and the City Attorney’s Office, we are one step closer to holding accountable the individuals who may have contributed to the circumstances that precipitated this fire and, hopefully, be able to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
