Woman Dies in Lancaster Blaze; Neighbor Saves 3 Others in House

By Michael Krikorian

Dec. 28, 2002 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

A 46-year-old Lancaster woman died in a house fire early Friday, but her husband and two daughters escaped with minor injuries after they were rescued by a Marine Corps corporal who lives nearby and heard their screams, authorities said.

Cpl. Arlen Traster was loading his pickup truck at 3 a.m., getting ready to report for duty at Camp Pendleton, when, he said, “I heard a girl cry out for help.” Traster, 26, said he saw smoke coming from the rear of a neighbor’s house in the 500 block of Kettering Street, three doors away.

As he ran toward the house, Traster said he saw Jeanette Zepeda, 14, on the roof of the garage and shaking. “I asked her to jump down to me,” he said. “She ... basically slid down into my arms.”

The teenager told Traster her parents and sister were still inside the burning house. Traster gave the girl his cell phone and told her to call 911, then attempted to enter the house.

Inside the house, Jesus Zepeda had grabbed his wife, Luz, and younger daughter, Evelyn, and attempted to reach the stairs. The smoke was too thick, though, and he could not find the steps.

“He told me he opened the bathroom door and there was no smoke in there, so he put Luz and Evelyn inside,” said Anthony Loya, Luz Zepeda’s brother-in-law.

Outside, Traster, a machine-gunner, said he “went to the front door, felt for heat and kicked it open.” Traster said he called out but heard no answer. Through the smoke, however, he spotted the staircase.

“I went up the stairs and yelled out again, but no one answered,” said Traster, who began choking on the smoke and went back downstairs.

After gulping fresh air, Traster said, he made his way back to the second floor. This time he heard a man’s voice. Traster said he urged the man to “follow my voice down the stairs.”

“He said his wife was still up there,” Traster said. “I was becoming overwhelmed by the smoke and started down the stairs. He followed me. He was delirious.”

Once outside, Traster noticed Zepeda’s other daughter in an upstairs bathroom window.

“She was holding on to something, I think it may have been her mother’s arm,” said Traster, who urged the girl to step out on the roof. “But she wouldn’t come out.”

Traster ran to his home, retrieved a ladder, dashed back and met the girl on the roof and brought her to safety.

Traster said he tried once more to enter the home, but it was too hot.

By then, Los Angeles County firefighters had arrived. It took fire crews 30 minutes to knock down the flames, authorities said. Inside, firefighters found Luz Zepeda, 46, dead in an upstairs bathroom.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but county Fire Inspector Kurt Schaefer said it may have started in the kitchen.

Jesus Zepeda, who was treated and released from Antelope Valley Hospital, returned to his home in the afternoon. Having injured his leg when he fell off a ladder in a desperate, last-ditch effort to save his wife, he paced wobbly on crutches in front of the fire-gutted structure. Friends and neighbors tried to console him.

At one point, Zepeda and friends entered the house and returned with a family portrait. Zepeda’s eyes filled with tears.

“She was a wonderful mother and a very hard worker,” said Loya, adding that the family had just returned from Mexico for the funeral of Luz Zepeda’s grandmother. Luz Zepeda was born in Mexico, grew up in the San Fernando Valley and moved to Lancaster a year ago.

Traster, who joined the Marines in 1996, has been on active reserve duty at Camp Pendleton since February. Traster is part of the Marine regiment assigned to homeland security in the San Diego area, according to Marine Capt. Alison Salerno.

Fire officials credited Traster with saving three lives.

“He’s very much a hero,” said Schaefer. “He basically got three people out of the house to a safe area.”

But Traster downplayed any attention directed toward him. “A woman died this morning and everyone wants to congratulate me,” he said. “Everyone was in shock and crying. Their home and their mother are gone.”

Times staff writer Wendy Thermos and photographer George Wilhelm contributed to this report.