$6-Million Fire Was Second to Hit Complex in Lancaster : Investigation: A garage was damaged at Marbella Villas on June 6. Saturday’s blaze left 80 condominiums in ruins.

A huge blaze that damaged or destroyed about 80 condominiums under construction in Lancaster Saturday, one of the Antelope Valley’s biggest fires in recent memory, was the second suspicious fire at the 9.5-acre site in two weeks, authorities said Sunday.

Arson is suspected in a small June 6 fire, which caused an estimated $5,000 in damage to a condominium garage. Investigators identified scarring caused by flammable liquids on the concrete floor, said Capt. James R. Nelson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, whose fire station responded to the incident.

Saturday’s fire, which caused an estimated $6 million in damage to the 127-unit Marbella Villas townhouses, was under investigation Sunday by arson specialists for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s Deputy Barney Villa, of the arson and explosives bureau, said “based on the fact of the previous fire” investigators suspect that Saturday’s fire may have been deliberately set.

Villa said investigators have not yet determined the cause of the Saturday blaze, at 30th Street West and Avenue K-4.

The status of the June 6 fire investigation was unavailable Sunday.

A spokesman for the developer said the company was aware that arson was suspected in the June 6 fire, but did not yet know whether it was connected to Saturday’s blaze.

“We’re leaving the investigation to the authorities,” said Peter Klaiber, vice president of the Hamdan Project Development Corp. of Century City.

The Saturday blaze erupted at 2:45 p.m., drawing about 250 county firefighters from as far away as La Crescenta and south-central Los Angeles County. Three water-dropping helicopters also responded. Two-mile-high plumes of smoke drew hundreds of spectators.

Six firefighters were treated for minor injuries and released from Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, said Battalion Chief Robert Mazzocco.

Mazzocco said the fire’s rapid spread through 20 two-story buildings also contributed to suspicions of arson. He said, however, that 25- to 30-m.p.h. winds fanned the fire, hampering firefighters’ efforts. It took about 90 minutes to control the blaze.

The fire razed 20 of the complex’s 34 multiunit buildings, authorities said. The damaged structures were in the wood-frame phase of construction, which made them particularly vulnerable to fire, said Nelson.

“It’s almost like setting a fire in a fireplace with a lot of kindling,” he said.

Nelson said the June 6 fire at Marbella Villas did not spread as quickly because the unit in which it occurred was already plastered. He said a security guard reported the fire, which left discoloration and buckling of the garage’s cement floor, indicating that a flammable liquid was used.

Klaiber said the garage damaged in the earlier fire was not among the structures burned Saturday. Company officials will begin assessing the extent of the destruction today. About 50 of the complex’s 127 units were being sold, he said.