LOS ANGELES — For more than 10 years, the homeless woman slept on the same plastic bus stop bench at a busy intersection in the San Fernando Valley, no matter how cold or rainy it was.

The 67-year-old woman, described by one church volunteer who saw her regularly as the “sweetest lady on the street,’’ was nestled in her regular spot early Thursday when a man came out of a nearby drug store, doused her with a flammable liquid, and set her ablaze.