This week on Wednesday (27th), a fire broke out in a house located in Hollywood Hills, Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, and firefighters later discovered a member of the Rothschild family dead.
According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, firefighters responded to the residential fire at 8551 Lookout Mountain Ave at 4:33 p.m. It took approximately 30 minutes for about 45 firefighters to extinguish the blaze. The house is situated on a steep hill, with narrow roads making it difficult to access.
Spokesperson for the fire department, Brian Humphrey, stated that they worked hard to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby vegetation or buildings. After the fire was put out, firefighters searched the house and found a male body.
Neighbor Jim Moore, according to ABC 7, mentioned that an elderly member of the Rothschild family resided in the house. “I wanted to email him yesterday to ask for permission to use part of his driveway for a roofing project, but I never received a reply, which is very unlike him,” Moore said.
The occupant of the house was millionaire or billionaire William A. De Rothschild, who reportedly lived in seclusion in this small, run-down house despite owning multiple properties and luxury cars, leading a “hoarder” lifestyle. Some neighbors had never seen him and thought the house was vacant, but Moore, who knew him, described him as a good person and neighbor. He also had an Afghan hound, which was not seen after the fire.
According to the real estate information website Zillow, the burnt residence had 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and covered an area of 825 square feet, valued at around $1.07 million. Fire investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and whether Rothschild perished before or during the fire. The house was found to have fire hazards.
The Rothschild family is a large Jewish family originally from Frankfurt, Germany, who long dominated the banking industry in Europe. Its branches in the UK and France have played significant roles in finance and politics. Particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, the family was widely believed to have accumulated the world’s largest private wealth. Today, descendants of the family are involved in various fields including finance, energy, real estate, and agriculture, scattered across the globe.