5 Fires, 4 Residential, 3 Deaths, 2 Days, 1 Hollywood Landmark

Within 48 hours, building fires in Los Angeles did not take a holiday vacation.

Early this morning in the Westlake neighborhood, a fire broke out in a three story converted-to-apartments Victorian home. Eleven residents, including two children were displaced while one man died. The cause is unknown.

Early last night on Budlong Ave. near 117th St, a fire, most likely caused by a space heater, killed a 48-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman in their bedroom.

On Christmas Eve, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported three fires between 8:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The first, a church on Argyle near the Hollywood/Vine Metro Station, was reported to be "fully involved with fire." Later in the evening, two homes caught fire, one on PCH in the Pacific Palisades and another in Granada Hills.

The Church fire was at the Little Country Church of Hollywood, a popular destination for celebrities to get married in the past, before it was shut down in the late 90s due to a dwindling congregation. Recently, a developer wanted to turn it into a combination church and restaurant/full bar, but the church has much more of a history:

The church was built in 1934 as a reproduction of a country church from the late 1880s on a park-like setting only a block from Hollywood and Vine. It was declared a city cultural-historical landmark in 1992.

Recently, a developer proposed turning the structure into a combination church and restaurant, complete with a bar.

In the 1930s, the congregation was led by William B. Hogg, a Tennessee preacher who may have been the nation's first radio evangelist. His religious broadcasts, on the CBS radio network, aired coast-to-coast until his death in 1937 [KNX 1070]

The House of Worship Task Force, which combines local officials with federal, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, will be investigating if the fire was hate related or not.

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist