Child, adult die in suspicious Richmond house fire

RICHMOND, Calif. - An adult and a child were killed in a suspicious house fire in Richmond on Tuesday night that left another adult and child severely injured.

Now, fire authorities are searching for possible signs of arson, and police are investigating the scene as a homicide.

Richmond fire

What we know:

Richmond Fire Department units were sent at about 8 p.m. Tuesday to the first home at 231 15th St. on reports of a fire.

Firefighters were able to get the first fire out in about 45 minutes. But while they were cleaning up, they noticed a fire at another house just one door down at 239 15th St. They quickly shifted their efforts to the second house.

Authorities found a family of four – two children and two adults – unconscious inside the second home.

One of the adults and one of the children died at the scene, while the other two victims were hospitalized in critical condition. The exact nature of their injuries were not known.

Investigators are treating the fire as suspicious. The RFD said the two fires were started independent of each other, but no further details were immediately available.

What they're saying

Dig deeper:

No arrests have been made as of Wednesday morning.

KTVU spoke with neighbors at the scene who did not want to be identified, and they claimed they had multiple disputes with a woman who lived in the home that was the site of the first fire.

"There was always problems with the [neighbor], and today there was a big altercation," an anonymous neighbor told KTVU. "In one of the altercations before, she threatened me with burning my house."

That same neighbor called the family "good people," and said one of their children was in a wheelchair.