Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire

The Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire was a September 4, 1982, arson that killed 25 people in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. An additional 30 people were injured.

In 1985, Humberto de la Torre was convicted of starting the fire and sentenced to 625 years in prison. de la Torre started the fire with gasoline and a match in response to an argument with his uncle, who lived in the building. The perpetrator and most of the victims were immigrants from El Salitre, Zacatecas, Mexico. The vast majority of the victims were from four families.

The Dorothy Mae building, located at 821 Sunset Boulevard, was constructed primarily of bricks and had been opened to tenants in 1927. The 43-unit building housed nearly 200 people.

The Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel fire was the impetus for the 1984 passage of a fire sprinkler law known as the Dorothy Mae ordinance. The Dorothy Mae ordinance "requires all pre-1943 residential buildings of R-1, Occupancy, three or more stories in height, to meet certain specified retroactive fire safety requirements."

The November 15, 1973, Stratford Apartments fire also killed 25 people in Los Angeles. The 1970 Ponet Square Hotel and Apartments fire that killed 19 people led to the enactment of the "Ponet doors ordinance."