ARSONIST'S TALE IGNITES ANGER FIREFIGHTERS FUME AT EX-COLLEAGUE'S FAME.

Byline: Howard Breuer Staff Writer

South Pasadena fire Capt. Danny D'Angelis snarls he wouldn't pay a dime for Joseph Wambaugh's new book, ``Fire Lover,'' about former Glendale arson investigator turned serial arsonist John Leonard Orr.

But he might see ``Point of Origin,'' an HBO movie starring Ray Liotta as Orr, since the guys at the firehouse will be watching anyway when the film premieres June 22.

``I don't want to help anyone profit off of it,'' said D'Angelis, one of the first firefighters to respond Oct. 10, 1984, to a fire Orr set at Ole's Home Center on Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena. Two young employees were killed, along with an Alhambra woman and her 2 1/2-year-old grandson.

D'Angelis says he got about 10 feet inside the building before the intense heat and flames forced him out.

``He burned down one of our buildings and he killed four innocent people,'' D'Angelis recalled. ``And he was there watching them die.''

``Point of Origin'' producer John Herzfeld concedes it's ironic that Orr, 53 - a narcissistic psychopath who wrote a novel loosely based on his Jekyll-and-Hyde exploits - is now getting his long-sought fame with the coincidental, near-simultaneous releases of the book and film.

``I think that John Orr somewhere deep inside himself thirsted for his own 15 minutes of fame,'' said Herzfeld, who himself wrote and directed last year's ``15 Minutes,'' starring Robert De Niro as a high-profile police detective and Edward Burns as a fire investigator.

But ``stories like this are going to be told. It comes down to how they're told, the theme and message that's conveyed through the fabric of the story, and that it's not gratuitous.''

He said it's unfortunate that Orr's not-so-fictional novel, ``Points of Origin: Playing With Fire,'' is being sold online.

Amazon.com noted this week that more than 73,000 copies had been sold. ``Only one left in stock,'' the site notes. ``Order soon (more on the way).''

``When we made the movie, we didn't know the book would be on the Internet,'' Herzfeld lamented.

Although the ``Son of Sam law,'' which prevented criminals from profiting from their crimes, was recently overturned, Orr may have to settle for notoriety instead of profits from the confiscated manuscript. A note on buybooksontheweb.com says profits instead go to the state's Victim Compensation Program.

Orr's former boss, Glendale Fire Chief Chris Gray, said many in the department feel it's unfortunate that Orr is now getting so much exposure. ``But I guess there's a compelling reason to retell the story,'' he said.

He added he has already read Wambaugh's book, and thought that, unlike Orr's, it's very well written.