Fires Los Angeles County

The body of a woman found with the body of a newborn in a burning car at Los Angeles International Airport last week was identified Tuesday as a Huntington Beach resident and former Marine stationed at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, according to authorities.

On the last day of her life, 35-year-old Maria Castillo spent the afternoon as she often did--chatting with a neighbor, watching her three young daughters play with her nephew as he kicked a soccer ball. She would sit on the patio between her sister's house in South Gate and the little guest house behind it that Castillo rented from her for $500 a month. A latticed canopy covered in bougainvillea created a shady arbor for Castillo and the friends who visited, often with children.

Burbank's 1920s-era train depot was severely damaged by fire Tuesday, prompting officials to evaluate whether the building can be salvaged as the nostalgic centerpiece of the city's new commuter rail complex. About a third of the vacant 180-foot-long station, located at 201 N. Front St., was damaged in the blaze, which erupted at 5:03 a.m., said Burbank Fire Capt. Steve Patterson. The roof of the main lobby also collapsed, he said.

Defense attorneys in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case said Friday that they will file misconduct complaints with the State Bar of California against the chief prosecutor in the case. Daniel G. Davis and Dean R. Gits, who helped win acquittals last week for Ray Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, accused Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael R.

Despite the frantic efforts of neighbors, relatives and firefighters to pry off iron window bars that trapped the victims inside, three people--one 18 months old--were killed Thursday morning when fire engulfed their home in Rosemead. "We could hear their screams inside the house," said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Dennis Ortiz. "But before we could get through the bars, they had succumbed." Rosa Garcia, 51, and her 18-year-old daughter, Mercedes, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The manuscript reads like pulp fiction or a psychological thriller. For nearly a decade, a serial arsonist sets brush fires and torches businesses across California. Authorities believe the culprit is a firefighter but can't pin an individual to the crimes. In the midst of the spree, the elusive arsonist sets a Pasadena hardware store ablaze. People perish in 800-degree flames, including a woman and her young grandson.

A week after it closed for business, an amusement arcade popular for decades with area teenagers was gutted by fire and authorities said arson is to blame. The blaze, reported about 7:20 p.m. Sunday, destroyed the central arcade building at the Malibu Castle, 12400 Vanowen St. Investigators have determined that the fire was intentionally set, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He declined to elaborate on investigators' findings.

A 38-year-old Lancaster woman was arrested on suspicion of setting fire to her daughter's apartment after sheriff's deputies smelled a flammable liquid when they questioned the woman, authorities said Sunday. Tania Hurd, 18, told deputies that she saw her mother, Cheryl Hurd-Preyer, running from the apartment in the 4800 block of West Avenue L-8 just after she noticed that a windowsill was on fire, said Deputy Rich Erickson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

In a bizarre twist to a death in Littlerock that police originally believed was caused by an accidental fire, authorities on Tuesday arrested the victim's wife and son on murder and arson charges. Before he died, the victim told his doctors that he believed his wife and son were having an affair and that he feared for his life, police said.

A small fire Saturday destroyed the roof of a water pumping station on the California Aqueduct about 16 miles southeast of Palmdale, but it did not affect the flow of water to Southern California, authorities said. Lonnie Long, division chief for the state Department of Water Resources, said the fire at the Pearblossom station broke out shortly before 5:30 p.m., after workers completed roof repair work. "The exact cause is under investigation," he said.