Rescue Attempt Fails : Canoga Park Boy, 10, Killed in House Fire

A Canoga Park man had to be restrained from running into a burning house in an attempt to save his 10-year-old stepson, who died in the blaze, a neighbor said Tuesday.

Jaime Guerrero’s charred body was found in the living room of the house in the 22000 block of Cohasset Street, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Vince Marzo said.

Arson investigators have labeled the fire incendiary, meaning that “it was started by human hands,” said Marzo. Police will investigate whether the fire was intentionally or maliciously set, Los Angeles Police Detective Patrick Conmay said.

After fleeing the flames late Monday, the boy’s stepfather, Pedro Carrillo, 36, said he counted heads and found one missing.

“I said, ‘Where is Jaime, where is Jaime, where is Jaime?,’ ” he recounted. “And then I can’t find him, you know, because I can’t see, too much smoke.”

Started Breaking Windows

Carrillo said he ran back to the house and started breaking windows with his hands to look for the boy.

Neighbor Manuel Cruz, 30, was driving by when he saw the flames. He stopped in time to see Carrillo trying to enter the house, and he heard the boy’s screams from inside, he said.

“I had to drag him out,” Cruz said of Carrillo. “He wanted to go into the flames. I just told him, ‘You can’t. There’s nothing you can do. . . . The whole living room was in flames, just like an oven.”

The boy “apparently became confused and was trapped by the flames as he tried to escape,” according to a statement issued by police.

Fire officials “really haven’t found the usual accidental sources, like electrical problems,” Conmay said. “There seems to be some indication that it could be an intentional fire, but we don’t know who might have started it.”

Results of an autopsy on the boy are pending.

Hands Burned, Cut

Carrillo, whose hands were burned and cut, was treated at Nu-Med Regional Medical Center and released. Carrillo’s 5-year-old stepdaughter also was treated for burns, fire officials said.

Carrillo’s wife, Elvira Juarez, and two other children escaped injury, along with three other adults who shared the rented house, authorities said.

The fire caused an estimated $70,000 in damage to the house, authorities said.

After authorities covered Jaime Guerrero’s body with a white sheet, Father John Murray of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church said a prayer. He said he did not administer last rites because the boy was already dead and because such a prayer is for the forgiveness of sins.

“As far as a little boy 10 years old is concerned, we don’t worry about that,” the priest said. “I mean, how innocent can you get?”