A man was in custody Monday as “a suspect in the arson” fire at a residence in a Temple City neighborhood that left three men dead and two others injured, authorities said.
The fire was reported about 4:50 p.m. Sunday in the 6000 block of Sultana Avenue, just east of Rosemead Boulevard (SR-19), according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Fred Fielding. The fire was knocked down in half an hour.
Firefighters treated two additional patients and took them to hospitals in critical condition, Fielding said. No other homes were affected, he said.
The identities of the victims were not immediately made public. ABC7 reported the victims were men.
Shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced that the deaths were being investigated as possible homicides.
Sheriff’s Lt. Hugo Reynaga told reporters at the scene on Sunday that a 64-year-old man, who was a roommate of the deceased men, approached deputies at the scene and was then detained as a person of interest, but detectives had not yet interviewed him because they do not speak Mandarin.
On Monday, Reynaga told KNX Newsradio: “Yesterday, with the help of a Mandarin translator they discovered that the person of interest was, in fact, a suspect in the arson at the residence.”
The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was jailed and may face murder charges, the station reported.