A Mistake--and a Family Is Homeless : Fire: A Molotov cocktail was tossed into their home by error. But holiday generosity tempered the nightmare.

An Athens mother and her four children were left homeless late Christmas Eve when a Molotov cocktail was mistakenly tossed into their apartment by someone attempting to attack their next-door neighbor.

Within hours, however, what had begun as a nightmare for Barbara Madox and her family, was tempered by a swift outpouring of holiday generosity.

Madox and her youngsters, who spent Sunday night at a run-down motel, were showered with clothes, food, cash and new Christmas toys and other presents Christmas morning at the Lennox Sheriff’s Station. The gifts were donated by deputies, a South-Central Los Angeles church and others.

“I thank God nothing happened to my kids,” said a tearful Madox, 35, whose oldest daughter was in the apartment when the blaze began. “And I want to thank everyone for this because we don’t have anything.”

Authorities said Madox was an innocent victim of a Christmas Eve argument between two of her neighbors in a small, stucco apartment complex on 107th Street in the unincorporated Athens district of South Los Angeles, west of the Harbor Freeway.

Leroy Towner, 48, and Eugene Johnson, 31, had quarreled about 7 p.m. and Johnson decided to seek revenge an hour later, deputies say.

Armed with two firebombs, Johnson, who lived upstairs, tossed the first through Madox’s bedroom window before realizing his mistake, Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Kwan said.

“Knowing he threw it into the wrong apartment, he threw a second firebomb into the apartment of the man he had argued with earlier,” Kwan added. “(But) the first apartment was totally engulfed. They lost everything.”

Towner’s apartment, next door to Madox’s, was also damaged in the blaze, which caused about $175,000 in losses.

Deputies arrested Johnson and a friend, Edward Rachal, 29, described as Johnson’s lookout. The pair were held without bail at the Lennox station on suspicion of attempted murder, arson and possession of a destructive device with intent to injure.

At the time of the blaze, Madox, who transports cars between cities for auto rental companies, was buying dinner. When she returned home, she momentarily panicked, knowing that one of her daughters, Nicole, 16, had been inside wrapping Christmas presents.

Nicole escaped uninjured. Madox’s other children, Robert, 14, and daughters, Jimmeka, 11, and Rella, 10, were not in the apartment.

“My first reaction,” Madox recalled Monday, “was that I thanked God that my daughter was OK.”

Through the evening, deputies who had investigated the blaze took up a collection and raised $250 in cash, adding it to a $300 check from the needy family fund of the Lennox station.

And on Monday, Red Cross officials told Madox that they would assist her in finding temporary housing.

Father David O’Connell of nearby St. Francis Cabrini Church provided several toys for the children, as did local merchants and anonymous private donors.

“This is just a pittance really, a gesture,” O’Connell said. “The big thing is that their home is gone. Hopefully, they can find a place to stay.

“There are so many families in need in this area. We hear about the crime and violence. These are innocent victims.”

When Madox and her children arrived at the sheriff’s station to pick up the gifts, they seemed overwhelmed by the response--as well as by the extensive media coverage of their plight. Six TV cameras were trained on the family as they alighted from two squad cars.

But after seeing their new dolls, games and a bicycle, smiles beamed on the faces of Nicole, Jimmeka and Rella.

“This makes it a little better because I don’t have a dime to my name,” said Madox, a single mother. “Maybe it’s going to be a Merry Christmas after all.”