Family Dispute Linked to Fire That Killed Five

Investigators searching for clues to what sparked a tragic fire that killed a man and his four children found residues of an unknown flammable liquid and a melted plastic container in the bedroom where they died, authorities said.

Detectives said Tuesday that they still have no motives for the apparent murder-suicide believed to have been committed by 37-year-old Duc Dang Luong. But they cited a series of disputes the man recently had with his estranged wife, 35-year-old Hang Le Thi Tran.

Anaheim Police Lt. John Cross said investigators are working under the assumption that a despondent Luong deliberately set the fire that left him and his children, ages 3 to 10, dead. “I don’t see that assumption changing,” Cross said.

Tran apparently wanted to return to school to train for a career, but her husband insisted she stay at home in the role of a traditional wife, relatives said.

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

“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.”

Quyen Luong said Tran left his brother and took the children after their latest argument. But the children returned to their father’s house Sunday.

By most accounts, Duc Dang Luong appeared to be a picture-perfect traditional father and husband.

After work, he often played with his four children and helped the older ones with their school assignments. He always remembered to bring home flowers on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

So it was shocking for those who knew him to learn that early Monday morning Luong apparently locked himself and his children in the bedroom of their ranch home and set the room on fire. Police found their charred bodies on the floor next to a bed. Luong’s body covered two of the children as if to protect them in a last-ditch effort.

Neighbors and his co-workers at LeFiell Manufacturing Co. said he enjoyed his job as a machinist because it gave 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,” neighbor Kiok Kim said.

Quyen Luong, 44, said his family shared an especially close relationship with Duc Luong, his wife and children. Since he moved to Orange County two years ago, he frequently slept at the couple’s home, and his 17-year-old daughter baby-sat the children: Lynda, 10, Diana, 8, David, 6, and Joanna, 3.

Duc Luong was thrilled when he saved enough money and, with the financial help of Tran’s family, bought the modest one-story home in 1986, Quyen Luong said.

“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.

“I guess he thought that he was doing fine in taking care of the family and didn’t need Hang’s help,” Quyen Luong said. “He thought he had given her everything and didn’t understand that she needed more.”