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Filled with sumptuous seating, a patterned ceiling and artfully arranged bookshelves backed with floral wallpaper, the library is a mix of new and old, including the home’s original tiled fireplace.

Today, its high ceilings and patterned tiled floors remain as relics of a younger Los Angeles.

It was a bittersweet moment for Elachi, 76, who had danced down that tiled staircase when she and her husband first saw the home during an open house in the early 1980s.

The charred husk of an artificial Christmas tree smoldered in the aftermath of the fire, ashes coating the tiled floor as flames still licked at the scorched ceiling.

The house, accessed by a long set of tiled stairs, looms over the roadway from behind a tall green gate.