Authorities Say Fire Victims in Santa Ana May Have Set Blaze

Two people found dead inside a Santa Ana shop destroyed by an explosion and fire may have deliberately started the blaze they died in, authorities said Tuesday.

But the victims of Monday’s fire apparently did not intend to kill themselves, said Santa Ana Fire Department spokeswoman Sharon Frank. She added that arson investigators have not determined a motive.

“The ongoing investigation is focused on the probability that the two deceased subjects may have been victims of the fire that they deliberately started,” Frank said.

Nearly $1 Million Damage

Other than to label it arson, investigators would not discuss what triggered the massive explosion and fire early Monday that destroyed four stores in the shopping center at 638 S. Harbor Blvd. and caused an estimated $950,000 damage. The bodies were found inside Today’s Auto Parts and Stereo, where the blast occurred at about 1:30 a.m.

“Let’s just say that cumulative physical evidence at the scene indicates it was not homicide,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt. John McClain.

The victims, whose bodies were burned beyond recognition, had not been positively identified by late Tuesday, nor had their cause of death been determined. A forensic dentist was to examine dental X-rays Tuesday night, Frank said.

Authorities have been unsuccessful in locating shop owner Liem Khac Dinh or those “involved with the management and ownership of the store,” Frank said. One of Dinh’s business partners, who was last seen with Dinh Sunday night at about 11 p.m., also has not been located, their roommates said Tuesday.

Police initially investigating the deaths as homicides had been told by acquaintances of Dinh in the small shopping center that Dinh had received extortion threats demanding money.

However, police ruled out both murder and extortion, saying Tuesday that there was no evidence to support either motive.

May Not Be Insured

Jack Chou, 23, owner of the shopping center and Dinh’s landlord, said Tuesday that he did not believe his tenant had insured the small stereo and auto parts business.

“I had been asking him for his insurance binder for months and he never sent me proof,” Chou said. “We also require a tenant to prove liability on their insurance and every tenant in the whole shopping center had provided us with the . . . binder, except him.

“Right now my insurance (company) is trying to find out if he has any insurance at all,” Chou added. “I don’t think (Dinh) is the type of person, sophisticated enough, to buy a bunch of insurance and then burn it down.”

Chou’s insurance agency in Glendale did not return calls Tuesday afternoon.

“Well, the first thing that comes to my mind would be he (Dinh) did it for insurance money, so that’s interesting,” Frank said.

Chuck Hindman, chief arson investigator for the Santa Ana Fire Department, did not return press calls Tuesday.

Chou said he told investigators that he had received Dinh’s rent check by mail Monday morning and that Dinh was not behind in payments to him. “Any money he owed me, he paid me,” Chou said.

Although Dinh listed himself as the sole owner of the business--one that fellow shopkeepers in the center said was thriving--there apparently was at least one co-owner, Chou said. “There are some investors who gave him some money to open the store,” he added.

“He is not a well-educated person, but he seems to have a very mild personality,” Chou said of his tenant. “He doesn’t have much of a family. I once asked him, ‘Where did you learn how to do business.’ He said, ‘When I was in Saigon as a kid, in the street.’ ”