This story will continue to be updated.
Los Angeles County firefighters arriving at the site of a burning house in San Dimas this morning found a dead man inside a taxi cab outside the structure, authorities said.
They made the discovery around 5:15 a.m. in the 400 block of South Lone Hill Avenue, said Sgt. Allen Smith of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's San Dimas Station. Authorities say the man may have been a victim of suicide.
The fire was knocked down in about 30 minutes, and firefighters were going through the structure searching for victims, Smith said. Deputies, meanwhile, were going door to door searching for information about the residents of the stricken home.
"It is possible the man could be deceased from a self-inflicted wound, but we don't know yet,'' Smith said.
Deputies went door to door this morning searching for information about
the residents of the stricken home.
The victim has not been identified, but he was reportedly 58 years old.
"The occupant was sitting outside in the front seat of a taxi with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,'' said Chief Robert Ryan of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's San Dimas Station.
The man is believed to have lived in the home, and he may have been a taxi driver, according to Ryan.
According to Drew Jones, senior vice president of risk management for Yellow Cab, the victim was not a Yellow Cab employee, but an independent contractor who leased the vehicle from Yellow Cab. Although Jones would not release the name of the victim until next of kin had been notified, he said the victim had leased the cab from the company for about a year.
The fire was knocked down in about 30 minutes, Smith said, adding that the home was "very, very damaged,'' with its ceilings caved in and some walls collapsed, Ryan said.
The shooting and the cause of the fire are both under investigation.
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