Police suspect homicide after person found dead in RV fire near Home Depot in Sacramento
Homicide is suspected after firefighters found one person dead Friday when a fire destroyed two RVs in a homeless encampment and spread to the roof of a Home Deport store along Folsom Boulevard in eastern Sacramento.
The fire was reported along the 7800 block of Brighton Avenue, in the Ramona Village neighborhood just south of Home Depot. The fire was initially reported at the Home Depot store, said Battalion Chief Dave Lauchner, a spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department.
Officers initially spotted the RV fire after responding to a reported shooting at 3:07 p.m. in the area of Folsom Boulevard and Hornet Drive, near the Home Depot, said Officer Chad Lewis, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman.
Lewis said the officers arrived and spotted the flames which had engulfed an RV. The Fire Department was then called to extinguish the fire. Late on Friday, police disclosed that homicide investigators were dispatched to the charred remains of the vehicles.
“This investigation is in its early stages and the circumstances of the incident remain under investigation,” police said in the release. It’s unclear whether investigators believe the reported shooting is connected to the deadly fire. The cause of the fire also remained under review.
Lauchner said firefighters had some difficulty with the blaze since propane tanks were involved, but crews put out the fire in a short time.
It was unclear to fire officials at the scene whether the person who died was a male or a female. Lauchner said the RVs were in a homeless encampment behind the Home Depot, but fire officials did not have any further information about the fatality.
He said burning embers from the RV fire drifted onto the roof of the Home Depot, but firefighters quickly extinguished that fire. The Home Depot sustained some minor damage.
This story was originally published August 19, 2022 at 5:43 PM.
