Fire marshals reported today that the burning of the menorah of Chabad Lubavitch of Kensington was not caused by arson and was not the result of a hate/bias crime.
On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (12:30 a.m.), the first day of Rosh Hashanah--the start of the Jewish calendar year--the six-foot-tall (or ten-foot-tall, depending on which newspaper article you read) wooden menorah housed in front of the 605 Ocean Parkway synagogue (near 18th Avenue) burned to the ground in what was thought might be a hate crime taking the form of arson. Nobody was hurt because the synagogue is empty because of renovations.
Cigarette butts found in the pile of debris around the menorah might have been thrown there while still lit, after which the debris and then the menorah caught fire.
