La Palma : Car Rammed Into Shop and Set Afire

A dry cleaners was destroyed early Thursday morning by an arsonist who drove a stolen car into the store and set it ablaze, police and fire officials said.

The La Palma Cleaners, in a mini-mall on La Palma Boulevard, was gutted in the 2:30 a.m. fire, Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Sabol said.

“The dry cleaners was totally destroyed,” Sabol said.

The fire was touched off when the driver of a stolen, 1989 red Mercury Lynx station wagon rammed it into the dry cleaners, Sabol said.

It was unclear whether the crash was intentional.

The arsonist then set the car and the shop on fire and fled, Sabol said.

Firefighters who responded to the two-alarm blaze found the dry-cleaning shop engulfed in flames, Sabol said.

The fire caused about $350,000 in damage. No one was injured.

It took 40 Orange County and Los Angeles County firefighters 37 minutes to bring the fire under control.

A thick fire wall prevented damage to a neighboring drugstore and a grocery store, but smoke caused minor to moderate damage to a trophy shop, a boutique and a restaurant, Sabol said.

Fire and police investigators are urging anyone with information to call either the La Palma Police Department or the Orange County Fire Department.