2 Bodies Found in Rubble of Store Hit by Blast

Two bodies were found amid the rubble of a massive explosion and fire that destroyed four stores in a Santa Ana shopping center early Friday, authorities said.

From the condition of the bodies, there is no way to determine the age or sex of the victims or the cause of death, Santa Ana Fire Department spokeswoman Sharon Frank said.

Preliminary autopsy reports were expected today.

Fire officials estimated the damage at $950,000. It took 45 firefighters 90 minutes to control the blaze.

Santa Ana Police and Fire Department arson investigators were joined at the scene by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad. But a police source said later that investigators have ruled out a bomb as the cause of the 1:38 a.m. explosion inside Today’s Auto Parts and Stereo, 638 S. Harbor Blvd., where the bodies were found. The cause remained under investigation.

Frank said authorities were trying to locate the store owner, Liem Khac Dinh, but would not reveal further details. Investigators said they believe there also may be a second owner.

Police said they were told by other merchants in the area that the auto parts/stereo store owners may have been the target of extortionists.

“We’re not taking it seriously yet,” said Cpl. Ferrell Buckles of the Santa Ana Police Department.

Billy Bryan, 24, whose father-in-law owns an adjacent bookstore, said one of the store owners “was getting worried about” threats.

That owner, identified by Bryan only as a young Vietnamese man named Tony, said that “some guys had threatened him. He mentioned they said something like: ‘Pay up or we’ll make sure you get out.’ ”

Cari Penhall, who owns the hair salon next door, said that after her shop was burglarized a year ago, Tony told her: “Don’t worry anymore.”

She said he added that “we’re going to be here at night and we’ll protect you.”

Penhall said she never took the comments seriously, but that the man would periodically check on his business late at night.

However, a police investigator who declined to be identified said that in his opinion there is nothing to the extortion theory.