{"id":73743,"date":"2025-07-18T22:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T22:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73743\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T22:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T22:07:12","slug":"3-killed-in-explosion-at-los-angeles-sheriffs-training-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73743\/","title":{"rendered":"3 killed in explosion at Los Angeles sheriff’s training facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A Friday blast at a Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department training facility killed three members of its arson and explosives unit, marking one of the department\u2019s worst losses of life from a single incident, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n

All three were veteran deputies. The department hasn\u2019t said what they were doing at the time of the blast or what caused it.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

A sheriffs deputy monitors a street closure near the site of an explosion at the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Special Operations Bureau on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Etienne Laurent)<\/p>\n

A sheriffs deputy monitors a street closure near the site of an explosion at the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Special Operations Bureau on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Etienne Laurent)<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the arson and explosives team undergoes in-depth training and responds to more than 1,000 calls a year. The deputies had served 19, 22 and 33 years in the department, Luna said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have years of training,\u201d the sheriff said at a news conference. \u201cThey are fantastic experts and, unfortunately, I lost three of them today.\u201d <\/p>\n

The explosion was reported about 7:30 a.m. at the Biscailuz Training Facility, Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department spokesperson Nicole Nishida said. <\/p>\n

Aerial footage from KABC-TV shows the explosion happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff\u2019s patrol cars and box trucks. Three covered bodies could be seen near a truck with a ramp attached to a side door. A patrol cruiser parked nearby had its rearview mirror shattered by the blast.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

A sheriffs deputy monitors a street closure near the site of an explosion at the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Special Operations Bureau on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Etienne Laurent)<\/p>\n

A sheriffs deputy monitors a street closure near the site of an explosion at the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Special Operations Bureau on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Etienne Laurent)<\/p>\n

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Luna said it took more than four hours to render the scene safe and the deaths are being investigated by the department\u2019s homicide detectives, with the assistance of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. No one else was injured in the explosion, he said.<\/p>\n

An early line of investigation was looking at a possible training accident, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter who was not authorized to discuss it and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the explosion \u201cappears to be a horrific incident\u201d and federal agents are at the scene to learn more.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease pray for the families of the sheriff\u2019s deputies killed,\u201d Bondi wrote. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sheriffs deputy monitors a street closure near the site of an explosion at the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Special Operations Bureau on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Etienne Laurent)<\/p>\n

A sheriffs deputy monitors a street closure near the site of an explosion at the LA County Sheriff\u2019s Special Operations Bureau on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Etienne Laurent)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Luna said the deaths marked the department\u2019s worst loss of life in a single incident since 1857, when four officers were killed by gunfire, and noted that he couldn\u2019t release the deputies\u2019 names because he had yet to speak to one of the families.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have met with two of three families thus far. Those were extremely challenging conversations,\u201d Luna said, his voice breaking.<\/p>\n

Arson investigators from the Los Angeles Fire Department and members of the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad were also assisting the investigation at the training facility, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office said he\u2019s been briefed and that the Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff\u2019s Department and closely monitoring the situation. He later posted on X that members of the State Fire Marshal were helping with the investigation at the request of the ATF. <\/p>\n

Jason Zabala, a deputy who is a member of the sheriff\u2019s department SWAT team, called the deputies who died \u201cthe best of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you sign up for the job, you know it\u2019s going to be a dangerous job. As the years goes on, you realize how dangerous it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Tucker reported from Washington and Rodriguez from San Francisco. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has corrected the spelling of Jason Zabala\u2019s surname.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A Friday blast at a Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department training facility killed three…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[8339,51430,1582,2059,276,4219,51431,4216,1854,57,51505,5413,2961,2936,224,5337,51432,11335,51506,17815,51507,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-73743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-arson","9":"tag-bureau-of-alcohol","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-ca-state-wire","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-crime","14":"tag-firearms-and-explosives","15":"tag-fires","16":"tag-gavin-newsom","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-jason-zabala","19":"tag-karen-bass","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-law-enforcement","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-losangeles","24":"tag-nicole-nishida","25":"tag-pam-bondi","26":"tag-robert-luna","27":"tag-tobacco","28":"tag-u-s-federal-bureau-of-investigation","29":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114876517133640204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73743","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=73743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}