California Standoff Keeps Firefighters Away From House Fire

SANTEE, Calif. - Two bodies have been found in a charred Southern California home after a man telephoned authorities and said he killed his wife and was torching the home before killing himself.


The names of the couple found in the burned Santee home haven't been released. The Los Angeles Times says 60-year-old Michael Cour and 70-year-old Janice Gervais owned the home.

Investigators say a man called 911 on Saturday afternoon and said that he had just killed his wife and planned to set fire to his home and commit suicide. He threatened to shoot anyone who attempted to put out the blaze.

With firefighters unable to approach the home, it was quickly destroyed by the flames.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com


Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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so sad
Reminds me of the riots of the late sixties, which I wish I could forget.
The night before Halloween, we were toned out for a mutual aid several towns away for a lumber yard fire. By the time we arrived, local militants had set fire to about a dozen cars, rolling them down hills and letting them crash and burn wherever they landed. All in all, we had about a half dozen homes, an electrical supply, the lumber yard (major) and the cars left burning over several blocks.
I still have the scar from getting hit between the eyes by a rock, thrown at us from the gathering tribes of arsonists. They were hurling all kinds of stuff at us. I was completely defenseless, standing on the rear step of old 702.

This was all new to us, and there wasn't any policy regarding securing the scene before attempts were made at suppression. Things soon changed and there were lots of LE on the scene after that night.
I went to a scene similar to this one, in the early 90's, suicidal male, barricaded in his house, kept trying to set it on fire. Difference was, the sheriffs deputies, took our hose lines and surrounded the house, each time he lit a fire, they took out a window and flooded it... the suspect was pissed, but eventually gave up....
Slightly O/T but we were called out to a "car on fire" in a run down part of the community. On arrival, we charged two 1 3/4" hand lines and started putting out the fire when the drunken property owner appeared and began to scream and yell for us to "Get the H--- off his property. As IC i called for a deputy but in between that call and his arrival one of our veteran firefighters just happened to direct the fire stream he was using, indirectly on the abusive individual! He got the message and left us to our job. A fully charged fire hose is a pretty potent weapon if needed.

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