Third Fire Extinguished at Homicide House on Lassen Street

Firefighters made a return trip early Monday to the Chatsworth home where the decomposing bodies of a man and women were found in a Dumpster last August -- the third blaze at the property, police said.

Firefighters went to the home in the 20400 block of Lassen Street around 3 a.m. and spotted a van parked in the backyard of the home, which was engulfed in flames, said Sgt. Lonnie Tiano of the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Station.

It was the third fire at the home -- and the smallest -- since the bodies were found Aug. 12, Tiano said.

Monday's fire occurred hours before Brent D. Zubek -- who is suspected in the killings -- was scheduled to appear in a San Fernando courtroom for arraignment on charges that he fired on police when they closed in on him Aug. 22 in Encino. He has not yet been charged with either of the slayings.

-- City News Service