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A man found dead after a fire severely damaged his Laurel Canyon home Wednesday afternoon was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family, neighbors said.
Three people told the Times Thursday that the body found on the property on Lookout Mountain Avenue was that of William Rothschild. The address of the magazine I saw at the accommodation was “WM DE ROTHSCHILD.”
The Rothschilds, a vast Jewish family from Frankfurt, Germany, have long dominated European banking, with branches in Britain and France playing major roles in finance and politics, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At one point, the Rothschild family was widely considered to have amassed the largest private fortune on the planet.
Today, the family extends across the globe and maintains interests in financial services, energy, real estate and other fields, with some of its prominent members contributing to high society and philanthropy in London, Paris and beyond. . The Rothschild fortune is currently divided among many heirs and is said to be worth billions of dollars.
The burnt-out mansion was an 825-square-foot, two-bedroom property valued at about $1 million, according to Real Estate Listing Services, but it’s a luxury worthy of the scion of one of the world’s most powerful bankers. It seems like there was very little. A day after the fire left the Hollywood Hills home covered in soot, 45 firefighters put out the fire in just over 30 minutes around 5 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Video of the fire, shared by a neighbor who requested anonymity due to privacy concerns, showed flames shooting in several places along the front of the brick and stucco structure. The structure is located above road level and is accessed by a long tiled staircase. The resident said he could see “huge flames” and hear “glass breaking” as the fire spread, and saw another neighbor holding a hose and monitoring the progress of the fire. . The woman didn’t know Rothschild, but called 911 immediately.
Another neighbor, Dana Gladstone, said she was home during the incident but did not see the fire. Still, he said he heard the woman say, “Oh my God, that’s terrible!”
“She probably heard the news that he was dead,” said Gladstone, who has lived on the streets for a long time.
Voter registration records show William A. de Rothschild, 87, lived in the burned house. Another database shows a 77-year-old man with a similar name owns the property. The deceased man will be formally identified and the cause of death determined by the Los Angeles County Coroner.
The office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A woman whose name is listed in the Lookout Mountain home records also did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The smell of smoke was in the air Thursday as passersby stopped to view the scene and neighbors tried to make sense of the incident. Mr Gladstone said Mr Rothschild was in his late 70s and was passionate about his Afghan hound dog. Mr. Gladstone said he was a friendly man and described himself as a graduate of Yale University.
“The man was obsessed with his dog,” Gladstone said. “I knew him as Will.”
Neighbors alerted authorities after parts of the 1937 home, located near Wonderland Avenue Elementary School, were smoldering Thursday morning. Firefighters arrived on the scene within minutes and extinguished the fire, one of whom said it was a decorative piece of wood.
Neighbors say Mr. Rothschild maintains a collection of vintage cars, some kept at his home and others in a separate compound adorned with busts of great thinkers such as Raphael and Michelangelo. It was also equipped with several security cameras. His possessions also included a red Porsche that once belonged to Michael Jordan, two people familiar with the matter said.
The basketball superstar has owned several Porsche 911s over the years, including a red one. Sold at auction last year According to reports, for $500,000.
No other injuries were reported, the fire department said. However, one neighbor said the Rothschilds’ dog had not been seen since the incident.
Times researcher James Kim contributed to this report.
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