SUSPECTED METH LAB EXPLODES

Blast Injures Ontario Firefighter Extinguishing Blaze That Police Say
Drug-Making Chemicals Might Have Ignited.

ONTARIO -- Two people suspected of making methamphetamine were seriously
hurt Tuesday when the chemicals used to make the drugs exploded, police said.

Somer Harrison was sitting outside enjoying a cigarette when she saw a
gruesome scene: A man whose skin was melted like burnt plastic and a woman,
her hair mussed and clothing charred, walking quickly away from what police
later determined to be a burning methamphetamine lab.

Harrison told her roommate to call 911.

Paramedics found the couple dousing themselves with a garden hose a block
south of their home. The roughly 45-year-old man, whom authorities did not
identify, had second- and third-degree burns over 80% of his body. A
helicopter carried him to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton,
where he was listed in critical condition in the burn unit Tuesday night.

If he survives, he will be arrested on suspicion of manufacturing
methamphetamine, police said.

The woman, Rosa Hernandez, 46, was taken by ambulance to Arrowhead, where
she was treated for first-degree burns to her face, authorities said. She
also is suspected of manufacturing methamphetamine, police said.

Ontario firefighters received a call of a fire on a stove in a back house
in the 600 block of West Sunkist Street at 4:36 p.m. They had the fire
extinguished by 4:45 p.m., but not before a pressure buildup inside the
single-story home caused a window to shatter, injuring a firefighter.

The Ontario fire captain was taken to San Antonio Community Hospital in
Upland, where he was treated for cuts on his hand, Battalion Chief Dave
Schuler said.

Firefighters found materials used for making drugs inside the home, and
called Ontario police, authorities said. Narcotics officers determined that
the home was a functioning methamphetamine lab, investigators said.

The couple's landlord, who lives in the main house and asked not to be
identified, said they had only been living there since March 15.

The pair had no children or pets, didn't have a lot of visitors and kept
relatively quiet, so the landlord figured they'd be ideal tenants.

He said he had no idea about the suspected methamphetamine lab until police
informed him of it.

Ontario Fire Investigator Frank Huddleston said that the
methamphetamine-making process can lead to a flash fire, and that might be
what started the fire.