Man Accused of Starting Blaze That Killed Girl, 2 : Ventura: A neighbor’s ex-boyfriend is arrested on suspicion of murder. The fire was set across the hall from the child’s apartment, officials say.

A Ventura apartment building fire that killed a 2-year-old girl and seriously injured three others apparently resulted from a domestic dispute between a tenant and her estranged boyfriend, police said Monday.

Calvin Michael Mitchell, 44, was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of arson and murder. He is accused of deliberately setting the fire across the hallway from the apartment where the little girl died, Ventura Police Lt. Don Arth said.

Arth said Mitchell was the boyfriend of Mary Ann Butler, who lived in one of five apartments in the building at 90 S. Laurel St. near downtown Ventura. Mitchell had recently been living in a Ventura hotel, Arth said.

Mitchell allegedly set the fire, which started at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, with a flammable liquid in the hallway outside Butler’s apartment. The fire then spread to the rest of the floor, Arth said.

He said Mitchell did not appear to be targeting the toddler who died or her family.

“It was a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. It obviously got out of hand,” said Capt. Glenn True, senior investigator with the Ventura City Fire Department.

Sarah Galka died in her family’s two-room apartment despite attempts by neighbors and passersby to rescue her. Sarah died from smoke inhalation and had third-degree burns on her body, Deputy Coroner Dale Zentzis said.

The toddler’s mother, Laney Galka, was in critical condition Monday at Ventura County Medical Center, and her roommate, Arthur Tyrone Finnegan, was in fair condition at the same hospital, a spokeswoman said. Butler escaped unharmed.

Twenty-month-old Cynthia Anderson, whom Galka was baby-sitting at the time, was in fair condition at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles.

Tenants say Laney Galka and her daughter moved into the building only two weeks ago.

But their arrival coincided with the worsening of relations between Butler and Mitchell, resident Carl Moore said. Moore and several neighbors say Mitchell came to the building over the weekend to harass Butler.

“On Saturday night, he was downstairs by the doorway,” said Michael B. Ellis, owner of a business on the first floor. “It was a shouting match. He said he was treated wrongly.”

Mitchell was being held Monday in Ventura County Jail on $250,000 bail, Sgt. Bob Larson said. He is due to be arraigned this afternoon, Larson said.

The two-story unreinforced masonry building, which fire investigators say was built in 1936, was closed off Monday. Inside the building, floors were blackened, and chunks of plaster had fallen off the walls and ceilings.

Galka’s apartment was littered with pieces of clothing, a mattress frame and charred doors. The fire was limited to the residential second floor.

Moore, who was still disoriented Monday, said he escaped the fire by climbing out onto a ledge facing the back parking lot and jumping to the ground. Barry Simmons, spokesman for the Ventura City Fire Department, said tenants in another apartment also escaped by climbing onto the ledge and jumping. Authorities were still unsure, however, how Galka and Finnegan escaped from the building.

Other tenants were aided by two Ventura residents who spotted the fire as they were driving by. The passersby--Kenneth Gonzalez and Rick Perez--grabbed a ladder from the building’s rear lot and helped the tenants out, Simmons said.

The Fire Department spokesman said tenants were unable to leave through the building’s front entrance because the fire, which was set at the top of the stairway, blocked their path.

Fire codes now mandate two exits for the second floor of a residential or commercial building with more than 10 people, he said. But the aging apartment complex had no other exit, he added.

Simmons said it is not uncommon for older buildings to fail to meet today’s fire safety codes. The Fire Department can do little to require owners of these structures to update their exits, he said.

“We have buildings all over town that don’t meet the codes. All you can do is educate and persuade,” he said.

Several of the rooms had smoke detectors, Simmons said. Because of the extent of damage, however, fire investigators are still unsure whether Galka’s apartment had a smoke detector.

The fire caused an estimated $45,000 in damage, Simmons said. Two businesses on the first floor--the Asian American Market and Design for Thought--remained closed Monday with water and smoke damage.