Two LA sheriff's deputies critically injured in training accident in Castaic

Four people were injured in an apparent explosion and fire on a training range at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic on Tuesday.

Authorities said two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies were taken to a hospital in Valencia, where they are said to be in critical but stable condition The other two people injured suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

Neither of the deputies has been identified thus far, but LASD says both are veterans of the department. One is said to have 21 years of service at the North County Correctional Facility, while the other has 17 years of service at the Sylmar Court House. 

After initially being hospitalized at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, they have since been transported to Los Angeles County General Hospital. 

Crews responded around 9:40 a.m. in the 29300 block of The Old Road to "an outdoor fire," according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.  

The Pitchess Detention Center is a prison, but also a training facility for Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies. The facility was placed on lockdown despite authorities indicating that there was no threat to the inmate population.

SkyCAL flew over the scene and saw crews putting out a fire inside a trailer, which is a mobile shooting range the LASD uses to train oncoming deputies. 

"It's used for shooting practice and re-certification every four months," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna during a press conference. ""Each trailer typically has two firing lanes within them."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department described what happened as a "training incident."

Investigators were unable to get close to the scene due to the fire burning the trailer, which had ammunition inside, as well as sound proofing material that is considered to be highly flammable. 

It took nearly four hours for fire crews to extinguish the flames. 

"The entire internal content of the trailer is what's fueling the fire," said Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief Thomas Ewald, as the fire raged. "So, everything is contributing to it."

Investigators are still working to determine what exactly sparked the inferno. 

"We don't want this to happen again, so we need to know why it happened and get to the bottom of it, so we prevent it from happening again," Sheriff Luna said. 

Out of an abundance of caution, Luna ordered temporary closure for all other mobile ranges across Los Angeles County. 

A pair of similar fires also occurred back in 2019, when a nearly identical incident happened in the Marina Del Rey area, when a fire also broke out inside of a range trailer, just months before a separate fire in May 2019, again at the Pitchess Detention Center. No one was injured in either of these instances, however.