Possible Arson Fire Destroys 3 Houses in Lancaster Project

Almost one week to the minute after a possible arson fire destroyed 20 houses under construction in Palmdale, a blaze of suspicious origin raced through a construction project near neighboring Lancaster on Tuesday, destroying three partially completed houses and damaging two others, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported.

The fire, near 52nd Street West and Avenue L-8, west of Quartz Hill, caused about $230,000 in damage, said Chris Button, a Fire Department spokesman.

The blaze was reported at 6:01 p.m., only three minutes after the time that last week’s fire started 12 miles away, Button said.

Both fires started about three hours after the last workers left for the day, he said. “I think it’s suspicious because of the length of time between the time construction stopped and the time the fire started,” Button said.

Unlike the wind-driven fire last week, which caused about $1.5 million in damage at the California Dawn development, the winds in Tuesday’s fire pushed flames away from other houses under construction, thus limiting damage, Button said.

The houses were in the early stages of construction, he said. They were among about 100 three-, four- and five-bedroom single-family houses for sale at the Crystal Meadows development by P&V; Enterprises.

About 50 firefighters contained Tuesday’s fire in about 15 minutes.

An investigation into last week’s blaze has not turned up physical evidence of arson, he said. But fire investigators said the blaze began in the rafters of one of the buildings, which they called an unlikely ignition point for an accidental fire.

The point of origin of the latest fire had not been determined Tuesday evening, Button said. A formal probe of that blaze was to be launched today.