Local News in Brief : Arson Ruled Out in Latest Library Fire

The lastest fire to hit the Los Angeles Central Library was caused by accident and not by an arsonist, Fire Department officials said Wednesday.

City arson investigators determined that a pile of debris was set on fire by pieces of lighting fixtures that were cut with torches during construction on the fourth floor and dropped through a shaft to the basement, Fire Inspector Ed Reed said. At least 80 firefighters from more than a dozen engine companies responded within half an hour and knocked down the blaze, which erupted at 5:17 p.m. Tuesday.

Some building materials caught fire, but there was little damage, according to fire officials. But they said smoke from the blaze stained murals in the rotunda and history room of the historic downtown structure.

City Librarian Wyman Jones said conservators who restored the murals after two arson-caused fires in 1986 will be asked again to examine the murals, cleaned at a cost of “roughly a half-million dollars” as part of a $152-million project to restore the library by mid-1992.