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<\/p>\nA 13-year-old boy and his older brother were killed Tuesday evening in a suspected fireworks blast that sent shock waves through a Bell Gardens neighborhood, investigators said. <\/p>\n
Officials on Thursday said they suspect someone in the apartment was making fireworks at home when the deadly explosion took place. Inside the rubble, investigators discovered large pipes and energetic powder, similar to what is used in fireworks and pyrotechnics, Lt. Michael Modica of the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole top of the roof is blown off,\u201d Modica said.<\/p>\n
Neighbor Lorena Ramirez said she was doing homework in bed about 6 p.m. Tuesday when she felt the ground shake. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a shock wave went through me,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cI immediately went outside, and all of my neighbors were already standing there, looking up across the street. It was like a pillar of fire over the rooftops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell Gardens Police Department responded to the 6500 block of Purdy Avenue, according to a Sheriff\u2019s Department news release. <\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s arson investigators found materials used to create homemade fireworks and explosives at the scene, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Neighbors told The Times they have constantly heard fireworks going off in the area, even though they are illegal in the city. On Thursday, standing outside the home where the blast originated, Bell Gardens Police Chief Paul Camacho said the explosion was the consequence of people ignoring the law. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to let the public know that fireworks are dangerous,\u201d Camacho said. \u201cWhen people are just not using common sense, that\u2019s the type of thing that could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday morning, fire department trucks were tearing down the affected side of the building, which was entirely blackened and hollowed out from the flames.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A sidewalk memorial for 13-year-old Carlos Abraham Hernandez, who was killed along with his older brother Christopher Benitez, 24, in what authorities believe was a fireworks explosion, on Purdy Avenue in Bell Gardenson Thursday.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Christopher Benitez, 24, was found with burns on about 90% of his body and died Thursday just after midnight, Modica said. Thirteen-year-old Carlos Abraham Hernandez was found dead in the apartment. <\/p>\n
A 11-year-old suffered minor injuries, Modica said. <\/p>\n
Investigators are still processing the scene and investigating the materials that were found inside, including whether they may have been mixed with other substances, but Modica said investigators believe the energetic powder sparked the explosion. <\/p>\n
Modica said that it is unclear how much was in the apartment at the time, but that it \u201cmust have been a significant amount\u201d because of the explosion. It was yet unclear what the powder was, and whether it was legal to be kept in the home.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just don\u2019t understand how dangerous this stuff can be,\u201d Camacho said. <\/p>\n
Ramirez said neighbors gathered around waiting for ambulances to arrive, even as they heard screams coming from inside the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounded like a young man,\u201d Ramirez said, tears welling. \u201cHe was screaming, screaming in pain. I never thought I would hear anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the street, Concepci\u00f3n Calder\u00f3n said the rattle that shook her home was so intense that she mistook it for an earthquake.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I knew it couldn\u2019t be,\u201d Calder\u00f3n said in Spanish. \u201cBecause at the same time, I hear this \u2018boom\u2019 like a bomb, and the windows rattled.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she looked at the inferno, Calder\u00f3n said, she saw a boy whom she baby-sits limping, showing that he had burned his foot. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked at me and said, \u2018Look at my foot. I won\u2019t be able to play soccer now,\u2019\u201d Calder\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n
Benitez was a member of the National Guard and a student, according to a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses. <\/p>\n
Neighbor Ramona Venegas describes Carlos as a quiet but playful young boy, who loved to play soccer and would often kick balls into her and neighbors\u2019 yards and politely asked that they tossed them back out.<\/p>\n
She said Benitez loved his three dogs and walked them often around the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all still recovering and I\u2019m especially praying for their mother,\u201d Venegas said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a terrible loss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 13-year-old boy and his older brother were killed Tuesday evening in a suspected fireworks blast that sent…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":552710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[13257,242325,1582,276,10617,10443,242327,22281,246,242324,33134,12507,2961,2936,224,29417,5337,13141,242326,95809],"class_list":{"0":"post-552709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-authority","9":"tag-bell-gardens-home","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-carlos","13":"tag-chris","14":"tag-christopher-benitez","15":"tag-critical-condition","16":"tag-family","17":"tag-firework-blast","18":"tag-firework-explosion","19":"tag-gofundme","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-law-enforcement","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-los-angeles-county-sheriff","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-member","26":"tag-old-brother","27":"tag-structure-fire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115981147495083166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}