#5 dead, including 2 children, in suspected arson at Denver home

Enlarge Image

Denver police have opened a homicide investigation after firefighters discovered the bodies of two children and three adults inside a Green Valley Ranch home that burned overnight.
Denver Fire Department

Five people, including two children, were found dead in a house fire in Denver that evidence shows was intentionally set, authorities said.

Denver Fire Department Capt. Greg Pixley said investigators made the gruesome find after putting out the overnight blaze in the city’s Green Valley Ranch section, where the bodies of three adults and two children were found on the first floor, the Denver Post reports.

Three other people in the home escaped the residence by jumping from its second floor. Authorities don’t believe they were seriously injured, Pixley said.

“This is a devastating time for Denver, for this community, and our hearts and prayers go out to this community,” Pixley told reporters during a news conference early Wednesday. “We really want people to understand that we do feel for them right now.”

None of the victims have been publicly identified by authorities, the Denver Post reports. However, the victims were identified by a neighbor as a husband and a wife, as well as their daughter, and the husband’s sister and son, KDVR reports.

The city’s police department has now launched a homicide investigation in the incident, citing evidence that the blaze was purposefully set.

“We have indication through some evidence that it was arson,” Joe Montoya, the chief of the Denver Police Department’s investigations division, told reporters.

Montoya declined to elaborate on the find, the newspaper reports.

Cops first arrived on the scene shortly after the fire was reported at about 2:40 a.m. Wednesday and tried to save people inside, but were pushed back by the intense blaze, authorities said.

“Officers quickly determined there were people in the home,” Montoya said. “There was a valiant effort to try to pull people from the home. They were unable to save some of the individuals that perished in the fire.”

No firefighters or cops were injured during their response, although the blaze did spread to two other homes before firefighters got it under control, Pixley said.

“We’re very lucky in that respect because this fire could have been far more significant, affecting far more people,” Pixley told reporters.