Kin, Friends Seek to Understand Tragedy : Fire: Deaths of 4 children, father in Anaheim believed to have been his deed.

As investigators discovered the remnants Tuesday of what caused a fire that killed a man and his four children, friends and family of the victims continued a painful search of their own for the reasons behind the tragedy.

By most accounts, Duc Dang Luong was the picture-perfect father and husband. After work, the 37-year-old machinist often played with his four children and helped the older ones with their school assignments. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for his wife, always remembering to bring home flowers on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

So it was shocking for those who knew him to learn that in the dark hours of Monday morning Luong apparently locked himself in a bedroom with his children and set the room on fire. Police soon found their charred bodies on the floor next to a bed. Luong’s body covering two of the children.

Residues of an unknown flammable liquid were also found in the room, as was a melted plastic container that police believed may have held the substance. The blaze was confined to that room.

Investigators said Tuesday that they still have no motives for the apparent murder-suicide but said Luong and his estranged wife, 35-year-old Hang Le Thi Tran, had been involved in a series of disputes in recent weeks. Police also said they are investigating the case under the “assumption” that Luong was responsible for the deaths.

“I don’t see that assumption changing,” Anaheim Police Lt. John Cross said.

Luong’s older brother said Luong was despondent after Tran left him and took the children with her following their latest argument over her wish to go back to school and get a job. Luong had wanted her to stay home and be a traditional housewife.

Tran could not be reached Tuesday, and her sister-in-law who refused to give her name said Tran has isolated herself from everyone but her family.

In their 14 years of marriage, the disagreement over Tran’s plan to seek a job was the first and only insurmountable difference between the couple, said those who were close to them.

“That’s what I can’t figure out and don’t understand,” Luong’s brother, Quyen Luong, said Tuesday. “Nothing, absolutely nothing in the years of the marriage, led to what happened this week.”

Duc Luong was a quiet man who kept to himself, said neighbors and co-workers at LeFiell Manufacturing Co. in Santa Fe Springs, where he had worked for 12 years. Relatives and neighbors said he enjoyed his job as a machinist because the hours allowed him ample time to spend with his family.

“He was a good worker and a very pleasant man--that’s all most of us can say about him,” said Cheryl Silverman, a company spokeswoman.

“He didn’t talk much, but whenever I saw him, he was always smiling and always playing with the children,” said neighbor Kiok Kim. “You could tell he loved them and (his) wife a lot.”

The family photographs and other memorabilia in the house seemed to be a reflection of that love. There were the couple’s wedding picture and many framed photographs of the smiling, proud parents with their small children. On the dining table was a vase of wilted red roses. A small basket of silk flowers graced the TV set. It’s heart-shaped balloon said: “Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Although Duc didn’t talk much--and when he did, he never raised his voice--you could always tell he loved his wife by the flowers he gave her,” said his brother, Quyen Luong, 44. “He showered her with gifts on her birthdays and flowers on Mother’s Day and even Father’s Day. And (in Vietnam) we don’t have those celebrated days.”

Quyen Luong said his family shared an especially close relationship with Duc Luong and his wife and children. Since he moved to Orange County two years ago, he frequently slept over at the couple’s home, and his 17-year-old daughter baby-sat the children: Lynda, 10; Diana, 8; David, 6; and Joanna, 3.

Before Quyen Luong moved to the county, his brother and Tran called often to keep him abreast of their lives. Duc Luong was ecstatic when he saved enough money and, with the financial help of Tran’s family, bought the modest one-story home on quiet Rainbow Avenue in 1986, Quyen Luong recalled.

“All he ever wanted was to work hard and buy a house and take care of his wife and children,” Quyen Luong said. “And he achieved that small dream.”

Tran also had little dreams of her own--dreams that evidently upset her husband when she attempted to share them with him. Duc Luong wanted his wife to stay home and tend to the children, said his brother.

“I guess he thought that he was doing fine in taking care of the family and didn’t need Hang’s help,” said Quyen Luong, who had been called in to help arbitrate the couple’s differences the last two weeks. “He thought he had given her everything and didn’t understand that she needed more.”