Fire in House Prompts Probe by the State
State investigators on Friday were trying to determine whether a Pasadena house involved in a fire had been used to illegally house as many as 20 developmentally disabled people. But Tina Castillo, 28, a resident of the two-story Summit Avenue house, said the only other occupants are nine members of her family.
No one was injured in the Thursday fire, which investigators say started when a pesticide room-fogger ignited after being placed too close to the kitchen stove. Firefighters evacuated up to 20 people, described in a Fire Department report as developmentally disabled, Battalion Chief Joe Milligan said.
But Steve Thurston of the Pasadena Police Department said Friday that, “in the heat of what happened,” calling them developmentally disabled was probably just “a bad choice of words.”
Nevertheless, investigators with the state Department of Social Services say they are following up on a complaint that Castillo and others housed disabled adults at the house.
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