By Don Thompson
The Associated Press
HAPPY VALLEY, Calif. — A fire that engulfed a rural Northern California home, severely burning six family members found dead inside, appears to have been arson and may have been set by one of victims, investigators said Wednesday.
“This incident is isolated to this family,” said Shasta County Sheriff’s Capt. Dave Compomizzo. “We don’t believe there’s a mass murderer out there.”
Compomizzo said investigators suspect most of the victims were killed before the blaze was set early Tuesday morning. He said investigators found “some trauma to the victims not consistent to the fire.” The flames spread so quickly, officials believe it was fueled by an accelerant.
Some neighbors reported hearing what sounded like gunshots, although others told authorities they thought the sounds came from the fire.
A man who lived at the home was at work when the fire broke out and “had no involvement in this,” Compomizzo said.
Jeffrey Crow, a newspaper carrier for the Record Searchlight of Redding, said he came upon the blaze while on his route shortly before 5 a.m., but the heat and flames were too intense to try to get anyone out.
“You heard just one bloodcurdling little scream. I mean, a horrific scream,” Crow told the Record Searchlight. “They were being burned alive.”
The victims range in age from a 13-year-old girl to a man in his 60s. But the bodies were so badly burned that dental records and DNA may be necessary to identify them.
“There’s so much destruction where the fire was hottest,” Compomizzo said. No one inside the single-story home called 911 for help.
Happy Valley is about 150 miles north of Sacramento.