Drug Suspect’s House Burns During His Arrest

The Pico Rivera house of a suspected drug dealer was destroyed by fire Thursday after Sheriff’s Department deputies tossed a “flash-bang” device through a window to roust the suspect.

County firefighters allowed the wood frame home to burn because of exploding rounds of ammunition inside, Inspector Chris Button said. “It would be absolutely foolish to try and save the house and catch a round in the chest,” he said.

Search Warrant

Deputies arrived with a search warrant for Benjamin Rojas, 33, but Rojas refused to open the door, Sheriff’s Deputy Richard J. Dinsmoor said. They used the diversionary device, which emits a bright flash and a loud bang, after Rojas fired several rifle shots at them, he said.

Rojas, who was alone in the house at the time, escaped out the back door and was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sale, Dinsmoor said. He was arrested without incident and was held on $5,000 bond.

After the arrest, deputies noticed smoke coming from the house and called the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Dinsmoor said. By the time firefighters arrived, however, ammunition had started exploding. Deputies later recovered 15 rifles and two boxes of shells from the house, he said.

Mother Has a Complaint

Catalina Rojas, the 60-year-old mother of the arrested man, complained later that authorities stopped her when she tried to fight the fire with a neighbor’s garden hose after rushing home from a nearby market.

Officials said everyone had to be kept away from the exploding ammunition.

“We’ll just have to start all over again,” Catalina Rojas said, gazing at the gutted house she had rented for 18 years and shares with her husband and nine children and grandchildren.

She said several family pets died in the fire, which spared the bougainvillea on the porch of the yellow house but devastated the rear sections.

“The puppy, the pigeons--they all let that burn,” said Grace Rodriguez, Rojas’ daughter.

‘All Collectibles’

Catalina Rojas said the weapons found in the home “belong to my husband and they were all registered. They’re all collectibles.”

Dinsmoor said the cause of the fire is under investigation but suggested that Benjamin Rojas might have started it to destroy evidence.

Deputies use the “flash-bang” device regularly without any problem, he said. Button noted, however, that “any sort of device along those lines has a fire hazard.”