Blaze Guts Former Shops in Center : Fires: Authorities believe the two-alarm incident at the mostly unoccupied downtown site was an arsonist’s work.

A fire that authorities suspect was set by an arsonist Friday devoured more of the Palmdale Plaza--the city’s first, but now mostly abandoned downtown shopping center.

About 50 Los Angeles County firefighters took two hours to extinguish the two-alarm blaze in the one-story complex at the corner of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q-6.

The center, which opened in the late 1950s, had been mostly unoccupied since early 1992 and had already been partially burned by two fires of suspicious origin in June of that year. City officials said they planned to explore some method to protect the complex.

Fire officials said the latest blaze appeared to have been set just before 5:30 p.m. in two or possibly three locations within the center with gasoline or another flammable material.

Firefighters initially thought they only had a small rubbish fire inside a portion of the center. But multiple fires and afternoon winds caused flames to spread quickly, forcing the call for a second group of fire engines. Low water pressure also hampered firefighting efforts.

Children and staff members had to flee the Palmdale community activity center as smoke and fire headed their way. The center is housed in a former supermarket now owned by the city that is the only portion of the shopping center still in use. The center was not damaged.

The fire gutted a former thrift shop, bicycle shop--where the fires began--and several adjoining sections that had been damaged by prior fires.

Property records show that much of the center is owned by a partnership headed by Reseda businessman Melvyn Starkman that had been facing foreclosure until filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last fall. City officials have been trying to buy the site to demolish the buildings.

As firefighters were containing the shopping center fire, a grass fire broke out a short distance to the north along 6th Street East near the Edelweiss German restaurant but was quickly doused without damage to any structures.