By Caleb Lunetta & Jim Holt
Signal Staff Writers
Medical examiners have identified one of two people found dead inside a burning house in Canyon Country Saturday morning as 82-year-old Bernard Halio.
A man, now identified as Halio, and a woman died after a house fire erupted and spread to other parts of the home on 28000 block of Flowerpark Drive about 11:40 a.m. Saturday morning, according to officials with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
“The other person is listed as undetermined,” Lt. Anthony Lopez, spokesman for the medical examiner, said Monday.
Investigator Kristy McCracken said Sunday: “One is a male and one is a female. We’re still doing our investigation, and so I cannot confirm if next of kin has not yet been notified.”
After the fire was first reported, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials had confirmed the two victims were being treated on the scene. However, the woman died on the scene and the man died soon after at the hospital, according to Detective Steve Lankford with the Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau.
“Our Sheriff’s Arson Unit is taking over the investigation because we ruled it early on that this was not — at this time, unless something changes — a criminal death investigation,” said Lankford. “Two adults did (succumb to) their injuries.”
Halio lived in the home on Flowerpark Drive with his wife, public records show.
“It’s a bedroom fire,” said Fire Department Supervisor Ed Pickett when the fire was first reported. “It’s on fire … and it’s gone into the attic.”
Officials were on the scene by 11:47 a.m., according to Pickett.
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On Twitter: @jamesarthurholt
