Detectives investigate woman’s ‘suspicious’ death in Lomita apartment fire

Homicide detectives are investigating the death of woman whose body was pulled from a fiery apartment in Lomita on Tuesday morning.

The woman’s death was deemed suspicious, so arson and homicide investigators will examine the fire scene to get more details, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Kelvin Moody.

A passerby first spotted smoke coming from a rear second-floor apartment window at 5:47 a.m. in the 26000 block of Narbonne Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

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Firefighters arrived and found the woman inside the burning apartment, which had “possible hoarding” conditions, fire officials said. Battalion Chief Mark Whaling told KTLA-TV that the victim, a woman in her 40s, had “a lot of personal belongings.”

The woman was pulled from the apartment and paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene, he said.

Firefighters stopped the flames from spreading into neighboring apartments at about 6:05 a.m.

This post will be updated as new information becomes available.

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