Woman Arrested in Fire Death of 6-Month-Old Boy

A 6-month-old boy, left alone in a Sylmar cottage, died Wednesday when the building burst into flames, and police arrested the house’s owner on suspicion of murder, authorities reported.

An off-duty city firefighter and a neighbor tried in vain to rescue the baby, Richard Robles, from the 9:48 a.m. blaze at 13501 Borden Ave., said Mike Little, a Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman. The men were unable to get into the two-room dwelling, which had barred windows that open from the inside.

The cottage is in the back yard of another house, owned by Raquel Lopez, 46. Lopez was taken into police custody for questioning and later arrested on suspicion of murder, Officer Art Holmes said. A motive for the killing and details of the events leading to the fire were not released.

“It’s something you can’t believe,” said neighbor Bertha Wingate, who reported the fire to authorities, saying she was in shock at the news of Lopez’s arrest.

Little said the child had been in the care of a baby-sitter when the blaze began.

The unidentified baby-sitter and two other children escaped unhurt, Little said. But it was unclear where the baby-sitter, who lives in a mobile home near the cottage, was when the blaze broke out, Little said.

“The baby-sitter . . . was not with the child at the time of the fire,” Little said.

The baby’s mother came home about an hour after the fire to learn that her son had been killed.

Neighbor Dorothy Thomas said the mother got out of her station wagon--which was filled with cleaning products--and asked what was going on.

“I told her there was a fire in a guest house and that there was a small child inside,” recalled Thomas, who was unaware that she was speaking to the baby’s mother.

“She said ‘Oh, that’s my baby,’ ” Thomas said. “She fell into the gutter on to her knee. Then she began throwing her body on a police patrol car and screamed, ‘Let me see my baby!’ ”

“I was so upset and sad,” said Wingate. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Throughout the day, people drove by the gated driveway at the house and left small gifts--stuffed animals, silk flowers and cards--for the infant’s grieving parents.

In a related incident, a television reporter covering the story was struck and injured by a news van from another television station. KTTV reporter Christina Gonzalez was sitting on the curb next door, writing notes, when a van from station KCOP-TV backed into her, Police and Fire Department officers said.

Gonzalez, who recently had back surgery, was taken by paramedics to Olive View Medical Center.

Nancy Valenta, executive news producer for KTTV, said her staff was waiting for word of Gonzalez’s condition Wednesday night. “Our photographer said she’s conscious and talking but in pain” from back injuries, Valenta said.

Gonzalez gained attention recently for her impromptu participation in rescue efforts during a tragic apartment fire in the Westlake district of Los Angeles. Gonzalez, a former medical student, shed her reporter role at the scene to administer CPR to several fire victims.

“What else is going to happen here today?” reacted Wingate after the reporter was taken away by ambulance. “I’m already a nervous wreck.”

Times staff writer Alicia Di Rado contributed to this story.