LONG BEACH, Calif. – An investigation was continuing Friday into a fire that heavily damaged an abandoned commercial structure in Long Beach, leaving a man and a woman dead and a woman critically injured.
The fatally injured man was identified by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Friday morning as Israel Benjamin Gonzalez, 28, whose city of residence was not known. Information was not immediately available on the identity of the fatally injured woman.
The fire was reported around 9 p.m. Thursday at a commercial building, possibly a former automotive service garage, in the 1700 block of Long Beach Boulevard, near Long Beach Polytechnic High School, according to the Long Beach Fire Department.
Fire crews quickly doused the flames, then searched the structure, finding a man dead inside, according to the LBFD. Two women were transported from the scene for hospital treatment.
One of the two women died at a hospital, and the other was hospitalized in critical condition.
No firefighters were injured, and the cause of the fire remained under investigation.