Girl, 6, Dies in Townhouse Fire; 5 Escape

An 8-year-old boy with a history of psychiatric problems admitted causing a fire that swept through his family’s townhouse early Friday, killing his 6-year-old sister, authorities said.

The boy, who was not hurt, was playing with matches shortly before 1 a.m. when the three-level townhouse became engulfed in flames, said Steve Ruda of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Three other children--a 3-year-old girl and 9- and 10-year-old boys--and an adult escaped without injury.

The children had been left by their mother, Windy Brown, in the care of a man she met about two months ago in a park, authorities said.

The man, Patrick Mason, 39, who is unemployed and on disability, said he pays Brown $200 a month to share the family’s townhome and was often left to watch over the kids.

It took firefighters 17 minutes to extinguish the blaze at the townhouse in the 8800 block of Willis Avenue, Ruda said.

The boy--who is under the care of a psychiatrist, according to his mother--admitted to arson investigators that he had accidentally started the blaze, Ruda said.

“My baby is dead and it hurts me to know it’s because my son was playing with matches,” Brown, 26, said Friday. “He’s had so many problems. He’s pulled a knife on us and he’s tried to jump from the balcony.”

The fire began about 12:40 a.m., Mason said.

Mason said he was watching television downstairs when the boy who admitted starting the fire came down from his bedroom and told Mason there were flames upstairs.

“He was crying,” Mason said. “He felt really bad and he was scared.”

Mason got four children out, but by the time he went up to get the 6-year-old girl, Kenee Williams, he said, the smoke and flames were too intense.

“I tried to save them,” he said crying. “I really tried.”

One neighbor said she was awakened by the children’s screams.

“When I looked out I saw them running, then I saw Patrick out on the street with them,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.

Brown said she believes her son, who takes medication for his psychiatric condition, was acting up because on Thursday she disciplined him for trying to steal from the ice cream man.

“I sat him down and really got him in trouble,” she said. “You could tell he was upset.”

Brown said she was at a grocery store buying food for the children’s breakfast when the fire began.

But Mason said Brown left the house at 10 p.m. Thursday and did not tell him when she would return. He said she often left the kids in his care for long periods of time, sometimes days.

“She goes out a lot,” Mason said. “I’m not sure where she goes. She has a lot of friends, I guess.”

Child-welfare workers were investigating the incident Friday to determine whether the children were neglected by their mother.

Spokesman Neil Rincover of the Department of Children and Family Services said firefighters called the agency about 11 a.m. reporting that neglect may have lead to the girl’s death.

“We already have staff assigned to this,” Rincover said. As of late Friday afternoon, he said, the children had not been taken from the home. “But that doesn’t mean that that won’t change,” he said.

“In a case like this, if they get a hint that these kids are exposed, they’ll pull them,” he added. “Better safe than sorry.”

More than a dozen of Brown’s neighbors said the children were often without adult supervision and Brown’s aunt, Jarvette Brown, who lives nearby, said she regularly checked up on the kids.

Windy Brown denied the allegations. “They all lie,” she said. “I love my children.”

Relatives said Kenee was a quiet child who was always polite. They added she was a good student who recently completed kindergarten and loved to play with her siblings.

“She was always happy,” Syblee Johnson, the girl’s great-aunt, said. “She was just an angel.”

Mourning relatives left balloons, flowers and candles on the steps of the townhome complex Friday morning. The burned unit, which fire officials said was heavily damaged, had charred walls and the windows were boarded up.

Several relatives and family friends stood in front of the building, crying and gazing at a photo of Kenee with her mother and two of her siblings.

“The girl was such a sweetheart,” Jarvette Brown said. “This never should have happened.”

Times staff writer Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this story.