*GRANADA HILLS, CA* — A person was found dead inside a single-family home after a house fire in the Granada Hills neighborhood early Monday morning, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
A person was found dead inside a single-family home on the 11600 block of North Swinton Avenue after a fire broke out early Monday morning. Firefighters knocked down the blaze in about 23 minutes, and both police and arson investigators are now probing the origin and cause of the fire.
*GRANADA HILLS, CA* — A person was found dead inside a single-family home after a house fire in the Granada Hills neighborhood early Monday morning, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
The blaze was reported at 8:06 a.m. on the 11600 block of North Swinton Avenue, according to the incident timeline released by fire officials. Crews from Fire Station 18 arrived to find fire and smoke showing from the one-story dwelling and immediately moved into an offensive interior attack, the LAFD said.
When firefighters brought the flames under control roughly 23 minutes later, at about 8:29 a.m., they located one civilian without signs of life inside the structure, the department said. No other injuries were reported, and the fire did not spread to any neighboring homes.
The blaze, logged as incident number 0440, fell under the LAFD's Valley Bureau, which handles suppression and rescue calls across San Fernando Valley neighborhoods. Fire Station 18, which handled the response, is located at 12050 Balboa Boulevard and provides primary coverage for the Knollwood and Granada Hills neighborhoods.
The Los Angeles Police Department was notified about the fatality, and its own incident, numbered 1365, is now open alongside the fire department's case, the LAFD said. Arson investigators were also notified about the death.
Any civilian fire death in Los Angeles automatically triggers a joint response from the LAFD's Arson Counter-Terrorism Section, LAPD detectives, and the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner to investigate origin, cause, and circumstances, according to Los Angeles Fire Department protocol. Arson Counter-Terrorism Section personnel are sworn law-enforcement officers who process fatal fire scenes working alongside police detectives.
Confirming the identity of the person who died, along with the exact medical cause and manner of death, falls to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, the department said. As of Monday, neither the victim's identity nor age had been released. Both the cause of the fire and the circumstances surrounding the fatality remain under investigation.
The address sits north of the Ronald Reagan Freeway, placing it within the jurisdiction of the Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council. Homes on this stretch of Swinton Avenue were largely built in the mid-20th century, with single-story floor plans typically running between 1,400 and 1,700 square feet. The block also falls within Los Angeles City Council District 12, represented by Councilmember John Lee, whose district spans Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, Chatsworth, Northridge, and West Hills.
Monday's fire is the latest in a string of Granada Hills structure fires in recent months. LAFD suppression guidelines call for aggressive interior attacks on single-family dwelling fires aimed at rapid knockdown within 20 to 30 minutes of the initial call, a benchmark that Monday's 23-minute response fell within even as the outcome proved fatal.
The LAFD is currently led by Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in November 2025 and oversees all of the agency's operational bureaus and investigative units. The department reiterated that anyone with an emergency should call or text 911.
No further details on the victim, the fire's origin, or a possible cause have been released as of press time.
This article was generated with AI assistance.