2 Fires, One Possibly Arson, Injure 5 People

Two New Year’s Eve fires--one of which authorities said might have been intentionally set--seriously injured five people, including a 7-year-old boy.

The child, Patrick Crawford, was among three people who were critically burned in the fire that broke out around 8:15 a.m. Thursday in the ground floor of a residence in the 29000 block of Val Verde Road in Val Verde.

Patrick was airlifted from Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital to the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, where he was listed in “extremely critical condition” with burns over 65% of his body, spokesman Larry Weinberg said.

The boy’s 17-year-old half-brother, Sean Williams, suffered second- and third-degree burns to 43% of his body, Weinberg said.

A third burn victim, Patricia Lynn Martin, 20, was transported to Henry Mayo hospital in critical condition. Dawn Carter, 45, fractured her legs and an ankle after jumping from a second-story window at the residence, sheriff’s officials said. It was unclear what relation, if any, Martin and Carter are to one another or the two boys.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Cruz Solis said the fire was still under investigation by arson-explosives detectives. But he said officials think “the cause of the fire was suspicious and apparently not accidental.”

Several hours after that blaze, a fire sparked by defective Christmas tree lights seriously burned a 40-year-old man in a Chatsworth condominium, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said.