Initial report identifies fire’s probable cause

The apartment blaze last week that killed two and injured more than two dozen other people appears to have begun as a stove-top cooking fire in a first-floor unit of the three-story building, according to a preliminary finding released Tuesday.

Chris Milburn, a spokesman for the Long Beach Fire Department, said the blaze was apparently fueled by cooking oil or grease being used by occupants of the apartment. The fire consumed much of the roughly 160-unit Paradise Garden apartment building and displaced 256 residents.