Authorities said Tuesday that a fire that killed two people at a 99 Cents Plus store in south Los Angeles was accidental, and no foul play is suspected.
The fire was reported about 5:35 a.m. on March 28 in a strip mall in the 4700 block of South Broadway, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. It took 31 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the fire, which also damaged adjacent businesses.
The cause of the fire was listed as “accidental and undetermined,” and there was no foul play suspected, said Margaret Stewart of the LAFD.
Killed in the blaze were Loretta Kirkwood, 50, and a man in his 60s whose name was withheld.
On the day of the fire, Chris McCants identified the victims as her sister and her sister’s boyfriend.
“I talked to her last night … and I wanted her to come stay in my house,” she told NBC4. “… I was planning on coming down here today because they stayed in the store sometimes, you know?”
McCants said the fatally injured couple had lived in Las Vegas before moving to the Southland recently.
“They lived in Vegas but he had just opened this business up out here,” McCants told reporters.
The building was not zoned for residential occupancy and was not equipped with working smoke alarms, fire officials said. The building also had security gates and locks that initially hampered firefighters’ ability to access the structure.
Customers of the store said the couple were friendly and considerate of customers, often letting people buy items on credit if they didn’t have enough cash.
—City News Service