Preschool Gutted by a Third Arson Blaze : Latest Fire in 11 Days Guts Facility in Yorba Linda

A Yorba Linda preschool was gutted Tuesday by a deliberately set fire--the third one there in 11 days.

The fire at Village Preschool caused $35,000 in damage and followed a fire Sunday that swept through five classrooms. Last year at the same school the dismembered bodies of pet rabbits were discovered on the lawn.

Patrick McIntosh, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Department, said the arsonists used a flammable liquid to start the fire in the front office area about 9:30 a.m. No children were in the building because the preschool had been closed since the first fire on March 11. Police have no suspects but are investigating.

Owner Louise Villeneuve said the fires have been “devastating” to her. “I don’t know of anyone who hates me enough to burn down a building.”

‘Can’t Imagine’

Parents and their children stood behind fire lines Tuesday morning and watched as investigators sifted through the ashes inside the school at 18052 Imperial Highway, a former medical building that Villeneuve bought in 1970.

“I can’t imagine that anyone could be so sick to do something that is so harmful to little children,” said Deby Goodman, whose 5-year-old daughter attends the school.

“It’s been pretty traumatic for the kids,” Goodman said. “Some of them have been waking up with nightmares.”

The fires followed another trauma for the school’s 84 children, she said. Last year, employees found the bodies of several rabbits from the preschool strewn over the school’s front lawn.

Lt. Cliff Trimble of the Brea Police Department, which also patrols Yorba Linda, said no arrests were made in that case and that the investigation was closed.

“A lot of parents are very fearful for their children,” Goodman said. “It’s a rotten thing to do to little kids.”

Goodman said she and Villeneuve are working with parents to establish a makeshift preschool at another site while damage to Village Preschool is repaired. But she urged parents not to abandon the school, which employs seven teachers and two aides.

“If we buckle under and take our kids and hide, then this S.O.B. has won,” Goodman said.

After the first fire on March 11, which caused $20,000 in damage to a breezeway and several classrooms, school employees boarded up the charred areas and planned to reopen Tuesday, Villeneuve said.

Those plans ended when a second fire--set in one of the school’s seven classrooms--swept through the school Sunday morning and caused $27,000 in damage.

Hope for Reopening

On Tuesday, five engine companies and 17 firefighters brought the third blaze under control in about 15 minutes, McIntosh said. Investigators are unsure how many people may be responsible for the fires, or whether they are linked.

“It’s hard to explain to our daughter what’s going on because she liked it so much here,” said Tom Alger, whose 2 1/2-year-old daughter went to the school. “We just hope the school is going to reopen.”

Susan Shedd said her 5-year-old cried after hearing about the first fire.

“They (the children) think of the school as home. It’s a home away from home,” Shedd said. “It’s really traumatic.”

Parents may be hesitant to allow their children to return here, she said. But “it doesn’t seem like whoever is doing this wants to hurt the kids.”

Fahi Vazirian, who has been director of the preschool for six years, said: “I don’t understand it. Right now there is a sick person around.”

Villeneuve, 72, shook her head Tuesday as she tried to make sense of it. “I don’t know who it is, I don’t know why. . . . This is just not fair.”