Home of Fire Dept. Retiree Is Firebombed

A retired Los Angeles County Fire Department battalion chief was in serious but stable condition Thursday after a brush with the dangers of his old profession--an arsonist firebombed his north Long Beach home.

Alvin “Jack” Hinton, 70, was alone in his house about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday when the arsonist yanked open his front door and heaved two Molotov cocktail-style bombs into the living room, authorities said.

A suspect, Oscar Lopez, 46, of Los Angeles, was taken into custody after neighbors cut off his escape and held him at gunpoint. Hinton, who suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hands, chest and face, was on a respirator at Torrance Memorial Hospital.

Witnesses said Lopez was shouting about a woman when he was being arrested. But investigators had not determined a motive for the attack, saying Lopez had refused to speak to them in an interrogation.

“I think, more than likely, he had the wrong house,” said Long Beach Fire Investigator Dave Kean.

Another aspect of the case troubled fire officials as much as the lack of information: They noted that Hinton, who retired from the county Fire Department in 1986 after 38 years, lived in a house with no-latch bars on the windows and no smoke detectors inside.

But as the interior of his modest stucco house was quickly enveloped in a firestorm Wednesday, Hinton’s fire safety instincts returned, authorities said. He put a blanket over his head as he darted through the flames around his doorway, and tried to douse the fire himself with a garden hose, Kean said.

Nineteen Long Beach firefighters responded to the blaze and extinguished it in about 10 minutes.

Hinton’s family could not be reached for comment.

At the house Thursday, the scent of smoke still hung in the air as Hinton’s great Dane, Beethoven, paced in the dirt. Neighbors described Hinton as an affable retiree, well-known on his block because he occasionally breeds dogs and often has puppies on display.

It was his neighbors who came to his aid Wednesday as his suspected attacker tried to run.

Antonio Gonzalez, a 46-year-old plant worker recently laid off from his job, was in his house next door cooking dinner when he heard the sound of breaking glass. When he went outside to investigate, he said, he saw the suspect run through the narrow, fenced-in alley between his house and Hinton’s.

Gonzalez said he shouted for the man to stop, and when he instead raised his fist, Gonzalez knocked him to the ground.

A moment later, Dean Shultz, a self-described “pest control technician” who lives behind Hinton, ran outside with his .45-caliber pistol and leveled it at the suspect. Then they waited for police to arrive.