3 bodies found amid flames, chaos at Temple City home; police say roommate has confessed

A man admitted to starting a house fire in Temple City that killed three of his roommates and critically injured two others, authorities said.

Xuanhan Zhang, 64, told detectives in Mandarin that he started the fire after getting into a dispute with one of his roommates, according to L.A. County sheriff’s Lt. Hugo Reynaga. Seven older Chinese people lived at the property in the 6000 block of Sultana Avenue, including two men and one woman who died in the fire, Reynaga said.

Zhang was arrested on suspicion of murder Sunday evening and will likely be charged with three counts, Reynaga said.

The L.A. County Fire Department received a call regarding the fire at 4:49 p.m. Sunday, department spokesperson Fred Fielding said. Firefighters arrived at the scene in less than five minutes, saw heavy smoke and fire coming from the building and immediately went into rescue mode, he said.

Kevin Kuan, who lives on Sultana Avenue, saw the smoke billowing down his street. In a video he shared with The Times, two sheriff’s deputies can be seen carrying a man from the burning home as one is yelling to the crowd, “I need someone who speaks his language! Ask him if someone is inside.”

There is confusion as people shout in a mixture of Mandarin and English and people rush out of the property carrying children. A shirtless burn victim can be seen with the skin peeling off his back and arms.

Kuan said he unexpectedly found himself translating for the paramedics when they arrived.

Three people were found dead inside the home, but firefighters were able to aid two additional victims with burns to their upper extremities and transport them to local hospitals.

The firefighters “did really excellent work and were able to get those two patients treated and transported,” Fielding said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to them. They were critically injured, but I hope they pull through.”

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After conducting the rescues, Fielding said firefighters quickly pivoted to containing the blaze, cutting a hole in the house’s roof to allow heat and smoke to escape. They then focused on getting as much water into the building as quickly as possible and extinguished the fire by 5:20 p.m., he said.

After the fire was extinguished, Zhang returned to the scene and contacted one of the patrol deputies, Reynaga said. Through a Mandarin translator whom the deputy had reached by phone, Zhang admitted to living at the home and starting the blaze, he said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives and the Fire Department’s arson team, Reynaga said.

On Monday morning, Lucy Tong was rehashing the events of the previous evening with her friend who was walking her dog. The commotion shook up this usually quiet suburb.

“It’s so quiet here,” Tong said. She and her neighbors witnessed the fire engulf the house in minutes. “We were all shocked by the fire [and saying,] ‘What is going on?!’”

“It was a big fire. ... The smoke reached my house,” Tong said in Mandarin. Tong lives just around the corner and captured images of the large plumes of smoke billowing in the sky. “It smelled like burnt oil,” she added. “I eventually left the scene because I was worried the smoke would hurt my body.”

She didn’t know any of the residents who lived in the house but said the homeowners had been renting out the back of the property to another family.