300 Officers at Services for Fire Inspector

More than 300 firefighters and police officers attended a funeral service Wednesday for Orange County fire inspector Dennis J. Donelson, who was shot to death in San Juan Capistrano early Saturday.

Old No. 1, a 1929 La France parade fire engine bore Donelson’s flag-covered coffin and led a motorcade of at least 30 fire engines from the Seal Beach fire station, where he had worked, to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, said Capt. Ron Blaul, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Department.

At the cemetery, 20 other red fire trucks were lined up along with representatives from at least 30 police, paramedic and fire agencies to pay tribute to the slain arson investigator, Blaul said.

Donelson’s photograph was displayed at the entrance to the chapel, next to the neatly folded gear that the 19-year veteran had worn to fires: a red helmet, goggles and yellow fire-resistant jacket, pants and boots.

A battalion of firefighters, their badges covered with a strip of black tape, stood in silent formation on the lawn. An overflow crowd of mourners spread out on the chapel steps and terrace to listen to the memorial service over loudspeakers outside.

Donelson died Saturday after undergoing surgery for a bullet wound in the lower abdomen. He was shot, along with Barbara Lynn Clark, 31, in the bedroom of her San Juan Capistrano condominium. Authorities have said that Donelson was investigating an arson that had occurred in July at an apartment that Clark had been renting out in the same city. Fire Department officials said he was on duty at the time the shots were fired through a window into the darkened bedroom about 1:30 a.m.

Hospital officials said Clark, who was wounded in the side, was in fair condition Wednesday at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo.

K.C. Janulaitis, 43, of San Clemente, considered by authorities to be the prime suspect in both the arson and the shootings, was killed Sunday in a shoot-out with U.S. Customs agents, who had tried to detain him while crossing into the United States from Mexico at San Ysidro. Wounded in the head and back, Janulaitis sped through the border checkpoint and drove for a mile before crashing.

As the last strains of taps filtered through the church Wednesday, the officers stood at attention and saluted Donelson’s widow, Carolyn, who was presented with the flag that had draped her husband’s casket. Three clear rings of a fire bell broke the silence, and the service ended.

After the funeral, Mrs. Donelson, carrying the folded flag under her arm, said that her husband was “one in a million” and that she wanted him remembered as “an extremely wonderful person and an excellent father to his children.”

As firefighters and their families offered the widow their condolences, Orange County Fire Capt. Dave Bautista, an usher at the funeral and a friend of Donelson, said the slain inspector was “someone who was very close and very well thought of in the department.”

Donelson was born in Long Beach and began his career as a firefighter in the Palos Verdes Estates Fire Department. He later spent 14 years as a firefighter and battalion chief with the Seal Beach Fire Department before the city began contracting for county service in 1982.

For the past three years, Donelson had been a fire inspector and arson investigator with the county, according to a prepared statement from the department.

“Nineteen years of your life is a significant contribution,” Blaul said. “We consider ourselves a big family. When we lose a member of our family, it’s not uncommon for us to get together and honor that member.”

Donelson’s body was to be cremated following the service, a park representative said. In addition to his wife, Donelson is survived by their son, Dean, 23, of Long Beach, and daughters Debra, 20, and Jensina, 8, of Seal Beach.