Pair Killed In Apartment Fire Identified

Oakland police on Tuesday identified the victims of a fire at an East Oakland apartment complex early Monday morning as 35-year-old Blanca Lopez and 37-year-old Damien King. Police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said the two appear to be transients.

The cause of the two-alarm fire in the 6200 block of Eastlawn Street that was reported at 1:13 a.m. on Monday is still under investigation but Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Coy Justice said the preliminary indication is that it was an accident and wasn’t suspicious.

When firefighters responded to the blaze, there was an active fire on the top and bottom floors of the four-unit apartment building, Justice said.

King and Lopez were in the bottom rear unit, he said. It took about an hour for firefighters to bring the blaze under control, according to Justice.

The fire was the third at the building since May. There was a fire on the top front of the building on May 1 and a trash fire inside a bathroom on Dec. 18, Justice said. PG&E stopped providing power to the building after the blaze last Friday, so there shouldn’t have been anyone inside the building at the time of the fire, he said.

Fire officials don’t believe anyone was in the building at the time of the fire besides Lopez and King, Justice said. The fire caused extensive damage to the building and three of its four units are uninhabitable at this time, Justice said.

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• 2 Die in Apartment Fire Near International Boulevard
• Morning Apartment Fire Appears Accidental

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