Detective: No Pot Being Grown At Scene Of Fatal Rosemead Fire

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ROSEMEAD (CBSLA) – A Rosemead home where a body was found was not a grow house, as the county fire department had reported shortly after the blaze broke out, a sheriff's detective said Friday.

Crews responded about 4:55 p.m. Thursday to the fire at a two-story condominium in the 8300 block of Rush Street, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The fire was knocked down at 5:08 p.m.

Residents said they didn't have much time to get out.

"That was home. I'd say about 5 p.m., somebody banged on the gate. So I came out and they said, 'The neighbors on fire,'" one man said.

The first arriving crews saw smoke coming from a second-floor window and a dead person was found inside.

The male decedent's name and age have not been made available.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but Sgt. Richard Biddle of the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune it was not a grow house.

"There was a large amount of marijuana but it wasn't being grown there," Biddle told The Tribune.

Sheriffs Arson/Explosives Detail Detective Jay Yelick told the newspaper the fire started in a common area on the ground floor.

The body was found in a room on the ground floor and the victim had suffered smoke inhalation and had heat injuries, Biddle said.

Investigators said they believed the victim lived at the residence, but not alone.