Three Children Die in Apparent Drug Lab Blast

Three toddlers burned to death and three adults were seriously injured Tuesday when an explosion in an apparent methamphetamine lab blew up a trailer in the scrubby hills near Temecula, authorities said.

Mark Lohman, an investigator with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, said the fire was reported at 3:29 p.m. Neighbors heard an explosion at the double-wide mobile home, set back on a dirt path off rural White Mountain Road in the tiny outpost of Aguanga, about 12 miles east of Temecula.

Initially, Lohman said, firefighters believed the occupants of the trailer had evacuated. Neighbors told deputies that the woman known to be living there, Kathy James, 39, had been driven to a nearby hospital for treatment, and that they had seen one of her children, an 8-year-old, with her.

Also seen fleeing the fire were two men, later identified as Harry Jensen, 42, and Michael Talbert, 38, he said. Both men later showed up at local hospitals with serious burns, and were transferred to the burn ward at San Bernardino County Medical Center, Lohman said.

But, he added, neighbors also told deputies there were three other children in the trailer, and none had been accounted for. It was not until the fire was extinguished hours later that the tiny charred bodies of the three toddlers, believed to be ages 1, 2 and 3, were pulled from the rubble in what had been the bedroom and living room area, authorities said.

“The bodies of the small children were all around the trailer. They were burned beyond recognition,” said Riverside County Firefighter Britt Lesberg.

The trailer was destroyed, and evidence in the ruins pointed to a methamphetamine kitchen--a makeshift lab for the production of speed, a stimulant that requires highly toxic and flammable chemicals for its production, Lohman said.

“Neighbors said they heard an explosion before the fire, and the preliminary investigation showed some glassware used in the manufacture of methamphetamine,” he said.

Lohman added that it was unclear what, if any, relationship existed between James and the two men. Nor, he said, was any information immediately available on the condition of the child with whom she had reportedly fled.

“We’re just starting to put this together,” said Lohman as a hazardous materials team suited up to sift through the remains for active chemicals.

The explosion was the latest and perhaps most shocking incident to be linked to the growing prevalence of methamphetamine labs in California. Known as speed or crank on the street, methamphetamine provides a cheaper, longer high than cocaine and is relatively simple to manufacture, officials say.

Consequently, a cottage industry has grown, from the isolated deserts of the Inland Empire to the close quarters of hotels and apartment houses in urban areas. But the production of speed is a high-risk endeavor, involving the use of such chemicals as iodine, hydriodic acid, caustic soda and red phosphorus that can create lethal and highly flammable fumes.

Such dangers, however, have not discouraged the use of speed in California, which one state drug official has dubbed “the clandestine methamphetamine capital of the world.” Officials said that earlier this month, a mobile home in the same neighborhood as the one that exploded Tuesday had been raided by local drug authorities.

A recent report produced by the nonprofit Public Statistics Institute in Irvine found that during the 10 years ending in 1993, amphetamine-related hospital admissions, a commonly accepted indicator of drug use, increased 366% in the state, with the sharpest rise occurring in 1992 and 1993.

And the presence of children does not seem to be a deterrent to speed manufacturers, officials say.