Aug. 5, 2026 5 AM PT
To the editor: The telling phrase in this account is, “The lot next to Galicia’s has been on the city’s radar since at least late January” (“Fire at abandoned home spread to his house. A Larchmont man is determined to rebuild,” July 31). It would be interesting to know what exactly that means. Does the city not hold the property owners responsible for hazardous conditions?
In my Los Angeles neighborhood, the fire department sweeps through at least once a year to cite owners for hazardous conditions and follows up with fines if not corrected. Is the neighbor not responsible for the conditions that led to Juan Galicia’s house being destroyed? Where is the city’s responsibility for citing and enforcing health and safety? Is the best a city council member’s office can do to give a constituent in peril a series of phone numbers? It is clear from the article that Galicia is not alone in trying to spur city officials into doing their jobs.
What is to stop the city from citing abandoned properties, demanding cleanup, imposing large fines and, if the property owner is not compliant, the city doing the cleanup and charging the landowner for the work like the fire department does?
Alexa Smith Maxwell, Los Angeles