NASA employee 1 of 4 fire victims
One of four people found dead after a suspicious house fire in the Antelope Valley has been identified as a NASA employee, officials said.
Joseph Paul Ciganek, 60, lived in the Quartz Hill home that burned Monday, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Sheriff’s homicide detectives are investigating the deaths.
Ciganek worked at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center as a management systems analyst specializing in electronic test systems, said NASA spokesman Alan Brown. Dryden is at Edwards Air Force Base.
Firefighters found Ciganek’s body along with those of a woman, a boy who was about 10 and a girl who was about 13. The burned body of a pet dog was found as well, according to the coroner’s office.
The woman and children are believed to be related to each other, but their bodies were burned so badly that coroner’s investigators have yet to positively identify them.
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