Oklahoma house fire: 8 people found dead after blaze; police investigating possible homicide
Broken Arrow police were joined by federal ATF agents to investigate the fire
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Eight people were found dead Thursday afternoon after a house fire in Oklahoma. Local and federal authorities are investigating the blaze as a possible homicide.
The fire was reported at roughly 4 p.m. in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa.
Officials did not provide details about who was killed or how the fire was caused, but they did not believe an immediate threat to the public existed.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Preliminary reports are that this is going to be a homicide investigation," Broken Arrow police spokesperson Ethan Hutchins said. "We're still focused on trying to put out the fire and also investigate what happened to these victims."
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Eight people were found dead Thursday after a fire was extinguished at a Tulsa-area house. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)
Hutchins also called the scene "complex" and declined to comment on any search for the suspect.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Understandably, this is a shock to Broken Arrow. It's a safe city," Hutchins said. "And so, we're asking the community to please pray and come together because this is something that we don't experience as a city very often."
Police say witnesses told them a family of eight lived in the house — two adults and six children.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}People look on as Broken Arrow, Okla., police and fire department investigate the scene of a fire with multiple fatalities. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)
One witness said that she saw a column of smoke near the house while she was driving with her children.
"When I got closer to the house, I saw smoke pouring out from the very top of the house, which looked like maybe the attic," Catelin Powers said.
Powers reported that she saw two men and a woman outside the house. A third man appeared to carry an unconscious young adult woman out of the building. The witness then drove away to avoid traumatizing her children.
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The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting in the investigation.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.