Local News in Brief : 3-Year-Old Boy Dies in House Fire
A 3-year-old boy burned to death Thursday morning when flames swept through his home and spread to a neighboring house in the Walnut Hills area, Los Angeles County firefighters said. His parents and two other children, aged 5 and 2, escaped without injury.
An off-duty La Habra Heights firefighter who saw the smoke attempted unsuccessfully to save the trapped child, William Goodrich, authorities said. The firefighter was treated for cuts, bruises and an eye injury.
County Fire Department spokeswoman Esther Witler said the parents, Michael and Pam Goodrich, who were at home, were taken to Brea Community Hospital to be treated for shock when they learned that their son was dead.
Fire officials said the children apparently were playing with a cigarette lighter in the converted garage the family used as a den when the blaze broke out shortly after 10 a.m. The fire did an estimated $175,000 in damage to that home in the 20400 block of Flintgate Drive, near Industry, and about $75,000 in damage to the adjacent house.
About 35 firefighters needed more than an hour to put out the flames.
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