A reclusive man whose neighbors said he was a member of the wealthy Rothschild family is dead after a fire in his Hollywood Hills Home on Wednesday.
Officials have not released the name of a man firefighters found dead inside the home, but neighbors identified him as Will Rothschild, a member of the prominent banking family, reports KABC in Los Angeles.
Crews responded to the fire on Lookout Mountain Avenue at about 4:40 p.m. local time, with 45 firefighters putting out the fire in just over a half hour, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
No other injuries were reported in the fire. The L.A. County Medical Examiner's office will determine the man's cause of death.
The fire remains under investigation, and it was not clear what may have started the blaze.
Neighbors identifying the man as Rothschild said he was an eccentric millionaire, or potentially, billionaire, who owned multiple properties and expensive cars.
But they also said he lived as a recluse on the street, where several multi-million-dollar mansions occupied by celebrities and powerful millionaires live. Some neighbors said they had assumed his house was vacant and they had never seen him.
Other neighbors who knew the victim, though, said they are sorry about his death.
"It is very sad," one neighbor, Jim Moore commented. "He was a good guy. A good neighbor."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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