Two Homes Under Construction Were Destroyed by Fire in Azusa

Two houses under construction were destroyed by fires that were being treated as suspicious, authorities said today.

The two-story, four-to six-bedroom single-family houses were part of a new housing development on Desert Willow Drive, just south of West Sierra Madre Avenue on the eastern edge of Azusa, Los Angeles County Fire Department Supervisor Robert Diaz said.

Both were fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived about 1:10 a.m., Diaz said.

The fire took more than 30 firefighters about 38 minutes to knock down, Diaz said. Damage was estimated at $500,000 to both structures, said Azusa Police Department Sgt. Xavier Torres.

Torres told ABC7 that although the cause of the fire was not known, it was being treated as suspicious. Torres said police had been told of the sound of an argument coming from near the structures before the fire.

Both structures appeared to have been gutted by the blaze, which Diaz said spread from one to the other.

The ABC7 report said one of the structures was regarded as unsound and could not be entered by arson investigators until daylight.

—City News Service