Bay Area Arsonist Sentenced for Restaurant, Car Fires

BAY AREA, CA -- A man who admitted to setting fire to a Mexican restaurant and car in Palo Alto was sentenced on Tuesday, March 5 to two years in state prison for his actions.

Osvaldo Madrigal, 37, of Menlo Park, had previously pleaded guilty to two felony arson charges connected to the fires, which were set Nov. 10 along El Camino Real in Palo Alto's Ventura neighborhood. He also admitted to committing a separate assault with a deadly weapon, which was also a violation of his probation.

Police initially arrested Madrigal the night of Nov. 10 for starting two fires that occurred within 50 minutes of each other. No one other than the suspect was injured. The arrest came after a 4:18 p.m. call into the Palo Alto Police 24-hour dispatch center regarding a vehicle fire in the 400 block of Curtner Avenue.

Employees from a nearby business extinguished the fire before firefighters and police arrived.

While officers were on scene investigating, they happened to observe Madrigal walking toward a nearby vacant building, the old Compadres Restaurant site, located in the 3800 block of El Camino Real.

At 5:08 p.m., an officer noticed smoke coming from the vacant building. Personnel from the Palo Alto Fire Department arrived shortly after, entered the old restaurant and found a new fire that was already burning through the roof. Inside, they discovered Madrigal and rescued him from the fire. No one else was inside.

Madrigal was taken to Stanford Hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation. He is believed to have been squatting in the building at the time.