A suspect was detained and questioned after three people died and two were injured in a house fire in a Los Angeles suburb.
Deputies responded to the fire in Temple City at around 5pm on Sunday and when they arrived found a man in the driveway suffering from burns to his upper extremities. Another man, who was in a disoriented state, was also found outside the home suffering from burns to his upper extremities.
Both men were treated at the scene by Los Angeles County Fire and transported to an area hospital for further treatment. After extinguishing the fire in less than an hour, officials made their way inside the residence, where they recovered the bodies of three victims, who were declared dead at the scene.
“Unfortunately they arrived to heavy smoke and fire showing from the front of the building,” Fred Fielding of the LA County Fire Department told NBC News. “Immediately we went into rescue mode but we were unable to save those three.”
They were later taken out of the home by a local medical examiner.
An adult male residing at the home was detained as a person of interest, but no arrests have been made in the case. Officials are investigating the incident as a homicide. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not release further information or identify the victims.
Jane Guzman De Leon, a neighbor, said she came outside of her home, saw the flames and called 911.
“I just heard yelling, like long yelling,” she told KTLA. “It sounded really frantic. I heard fear in the voices, so I ran out to see what was going on. I just saw fire. The full house, inside, was on fire, flames coming out of the windows. I saw two elderly men come out. One stayed on the ground, on the side because he had blood coming out of his head. He was just out of it and the other one, I saw skin peeling and he was just in a really distraught state.”
The incident remains under investigation.
