Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. (AP) – Eight people were found dead Thursday in a burning home in the Tulsa area, police said, in a case investigated as multiple homicides.
The fire reportedly started around 4 p.m. Thursday in a quiet residential area of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 13 miles (20 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa.
Broken Arrow police say While the fire and death are being investigated as homicides, they believe there is no immediate threat to the public.
Police spokesman Ethan Hutchins said the scene was complex with “a lot of moving parts,” so no additional information was immediately released. Witnesses told police the house was home to a family of eight, two adults and six children, Hutchins said, but the body has not been identified.
“It’s understandably a shock to Broken Arrow. It’s a safe city. It’s not every day Broken Arrow is like that,” Hutchins said.
Katrin Bowles said she was driving nearby with her children when she saw a plume of smoke near her home, so she drove over to investigate.
“As I got closer to the house, I saw smoke pouring out of the very top of the house, which might have looked like an attic,” she told The Associated Press.
Two men and a woman were on the phone when another man emerged from the front door, dragging a visibly unconscious and unresponsive woman, Bowles said. “Her arms were hanging by her side,” she said.
“She was wearing very short shorts or underwear and a tight shirt,” Ball said. She described the woman as having a tan complexion and “likely looking in her twenties”.
Powers, who suspected the woman was dead, said she continued to drive so her children would not be seen.
Broken Arrow is Tulsa’s largest suburb with nearly 115,000 residents.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the investigation, he said.