3 found dead after fire, but police say blaze not to blame

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Three people were found dead after a house fire in Southern California on Friday but detectives don’t think they were killed by the flames, authorities said.

Investigators do not know how or when the people were killed — or why, according to Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback. The case is being treated as an apparent triple homicide.

The victims’ identities have not been released but authorities believe they were all adults, Railsback said. It was also not immediately clear whether all three lived in the home.

Railsback said detectives and arson investigators are looking into the cause of the blaze, which was extinguished quickly.

Police were initially called around 10 a.m. Friday for a welfare check regarding a man and a woman involved in a disturbance near a car, Railsback said. Soon after, dispatchers were alerted to smoke and a possible fire where the disturbance may have begun.

Firefighters arrived to find the three people deceased inside, and the man and woman gone. Authorities are trying to determine the possible link between the disturbance and the fire, Railsback said.

Police do not have any suspects in the homicides, he said.

The city of Riverside is about 55 miles (88 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles.