El Monte apartment fire: One person found dead

Firefighters discovered a dead body after extinguishing a blaze in a two-story apartment building in El Monte early Monday morning. 

The fire broke out on the second floor of an apartment complex located on the 11400 block of Magnolia Street at 3:05 a.m. Monday. The floor contained four units, each of which has been red-tagged leaving 12 people, including children, without a home. 

"Popping" noises were heard by firefighters, who later determined there were ammunition and firearms in one apartment. Mom Yazmin Valdez said she heard an explosion but thought it was an earthquake.

"I started yelling at my daughters 'Get out! Get out!' and I just got freakout and I opened the door," she said. "I saw the windows were shattering with fire."

L.A. County Fire said the flames spread through the attack and then to a unit next to it. The fire killed one man. Neighbors claimed that he had an arsenal of weapons. Valdez said she had some tense encounters with him, while another neighbor said he mostly kept to himself. 

"We always had problems with him because he didn't like the noise with the kids," said Valdez. "He was always like slamming doors and yelling."

While Firefighters extinguished the fire by 3:45 a.m., it consumed most of the apartments on the second floor. Valdez and her neighbors said they tried to salvage what they could but almost everything was destroyed. 

"My little one, she keeps asking me 'Mommy I want to go home. I want to go home,'" Valdez said. "But it's hard as a mom telling her we can't go back."

The Red Cross assistance is helping the 12 displaced residents. With help from the El Monte Police Department, the cause of the fire was under investigation.

Authorities identified the victim as 45-year-old Chih Lee on Wednesday.