20 Injured in San Jose Dorm Blaze : Fire: Two students are critically burned as flames sweep through top floor of state university residence. Arson is suspected.

A suspected arson fire swirled through the top floor of a three-story co-ed dormitory at San Jose State early Friday, critically burning two students, hospitalizing three others and injuring another 15, including one asthmatic man who leaped from his window to escape the smoke.

Richard L. Abeyta, director of the university’s department of public safety, promised a “full-blown arson investigation” by the state fire marshal.

“I don’t want people to think there’s an arsonist loose on this campus,” he said. “There has not been an incident of this type before.”

Most seriously injured, with second- and third-degree burns over 55% of his body, was Brian Young, 20. Thomas Byrd, 18, had similar burns over 40% of his body. Both were listed in critical condition at the Valley Medical Center burn unit, hospital spokesmen said.

Cuong Pham, 18, was in stable condition at the center with serious burns over 5% of his body. Two female exchange students from France--Sylvaie Meaute, 22, and Valerie Audit, 21--were at San Jose Hospital in stable condition with serious burns to their hands and faces.

Hometowns of the injured students were not immediately available from university officials.

Abeyta said that “the point of origin, the way it started and the way it spread” indicate that the 5:57 a.m. fire in Moulder Hall “was not of accidental origin.” He said a couch in the dorm, which is locked day and night, was moved from a lounge area to a hallway and ignited, spreading rapidly to the outside of the fire-resistant wooden room doors.

He said one of the hospitalized men lived in the first room threatened by the blaze but declined to speculate if that person had been targeted. Abeyta added that no motive and no suspects have been established.

Whatever its origin, the fire moved swiftly down the east wing hallway of the 32-year-old brick structure at the southeast corner of campus, blocking an easy escape for most students on the affected floor.

“I woke up to screams and popping noises,” said Rip Arias, a senior premed student from Orange. The popping sounds were fluorescent lighting tubes exploding in the searing heat. “I went to the door and opened it up and flames rushed in, so I shut it.”

Like most others on the floor, Arias waited for rescue by firefighters, who used ladders to help people through the windows of rooms closest to the flames. Others were led out through the hall once the fire was under control, less than an hour after the two-alarm blaze was reported.

The only person who did not wait was Abdul-Hakim Moqim, 18, who leaped out of his third-floor room into some low bushes and fractured several vertebrae in his back. He was listed in serious condition, said nurses at San Jose Hospital. Ten victims were taken there; seven were treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns and released.

“My roommate peeked around the door and flames shot in,” said Michael Wu, 18, of Millbrae, Calif., who shared a room with Moqim. “He yelled ‘fire’ and jumped out the window (feet first). I tried to make a rope ladder out of bedsheets, but it was too smoky so I just stuffed it (the bedsheets) at the bottom of the door.”

Karsten Adam, a freshman aerospace engineering major from Burlingame, Calif., said he donned a gas mask he had hung for decoration on his wall. His roommate, Matt Lewis, a freshman biology major from Morgan Hill, Calif., said he covered his face with a pillowcase to protect himself from fumes.

“It was pitch black from the smoke and the lights were out,” he said. “You couldn’t run because you couldn’t see where you were running.”

Arias said students on the third floor opened their windows and hastily pried off the screens so they could get fresh air by leaning out of the burning building.

University spokeswoman Lori Stahl said 178 students lived in Moulder Hall--rechristened “Smolder Hall” by some irreverent students--but she could not say immediately how many lived in the affected area.

She said the building was equipped with smoke detectors but no sprinklers. A year ago, she added, the university installed a new fire-alarm system tied directly to university police.

Because many students fled the flames with only their nightclothes, the school set up an aid station in a nearby dining hall. New on-campus quarters were assigned and free telephone service was made available for students to call jittery parents, some as far away as France.