Girl Burned in Suspicious Fire in Ojai Valley : Blaze: Arson is suspected in destruction of Oak View home. Victim, 13, had earlier been the target of racial taunts. Nine other family members are displaced.

A 13-year-old black girl who transferred from an Ojai Valley school because of racial taunts was seriously burned Tuesday in a suspected arson fire that gutted her family’s home and displaced nine other family members.

Shuwana Stanford suffered first- and second-degree burns after the fire broke out about 4 a.m. in the living room, where the girl was sleeping on a couch, authorities said.

“I heard a big pop, then I felt heat on my head and I woke up,” Shuwana said from her Ojai Community Hospital bed.

Shuwana was in stable condition Tuesday, with two silver-dollar-sized burns on her forehead and lesser burns on her head and body. She was expected to be released from the hospital Tuesday evening, a nursing supervisor said.

Two other family members were treated for smoke inhalation and released.

Fire investigators said they have not determined the cause of the fire. They said there is a 50-50 chance that it resulted from arson.

“Right now it’s still under investigation,” said Norman Plott, spokesman for the county Fire Department. “We’re taking this house apart piece by piece to determine the cause.”

But family members said a hole in their living room window, a pop they heard before the fire erupted and the fire’s initial single stream of flame all make them suspect that a firebomb may have been thrown into their residence, located on a quiet street in Oak View.

Family members, who had moved from Ventura to the predominantly white Ojai Valley 10 months ago for security reasons, said they were awakened by the breaking window and then Shuwana’s piercing scream.

“I woke up and I saw a stream of fire,” said Charles Stanford, 29, the burned girl’s uncle. “Then I saw a hole in the glass where it looked like someone had thrown something through it.”

Winnie Stanford, the girl’s grandmother, said: “I heard her yell, ‘Grandma! Come help me! My face is on fire!’ ”

Although the cause of the fire remains uncertain, the top NAACP official in Ventura County, John Hatcher, called for an FBI investigation into the incident and Ojai city officials expressed sadness and regret.

Ojai City Councilwoman Nina Shelley said she has heard about white supremacist activity in the Oak View area.

“It is incredibly disturbing,” Shelley said of Tuesday’s fire. “Most of us feel that it couldn’t happen here.”

Six months ago, Shuwana allegedly was insulted and threatened by a group of white girls who scrawled epithets across her locker and carved a swastika just yards away, according to James Berube, principal at Matilija Junior High School.

The girls were counseled, but no disciplinary action was taken because of lack of proof and conflicting accounts of the incident, Berube said at the time.

Shuwana was so afraid she refused to return to campus. She chose instead to enroll in a home-schooling program, said Lonnie Stanford, the girl’s grandfather.

Even though the fire follows the racial incident, family members said they did not yet want to conclude that they are victims of a firebombing.

Shuwana said she has no idea whether the fire was racially motivated. She said she has not received any nasty notes nor has she been subjected to racial harassment since she left school in January.

The Stanford family, including three members who were visiting the destroyed home, was relocated to an Ojai motel by the Red Cross.

Kelley is a Times staff writer and Wilson is a correspondent. Correspondent Jeff McDonald also contributed to this story.