Two Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies are hospitalized with critical injuries after a fire and possible explosion during a training exercise.
The incident happened Tuesday morning in a mobile shooting range at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, roughly 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department initially reported that several deputies were hospitalized with injuries. However, officials later clarified that only two deputies were hospitalized in critical condition. Both are stable.
While their names have not yet been publicly released, reports indicate one of the deputies is a 21-year veteran assigned to the northern jail campus, and the other is a 17-year veteran assigned to the Sylmar courthouse, KABC-TV reported.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a press conference that the two deputies were the only ones inside the mobile shooting range trailer when the fire broke out.
Efforts to extinguish the fire were complicated by ammunition inside the trailer, as well as sound proofing material that is considered to be highly flammable, CBS News reported. It took hours before the flames were out.
The Pitchess Detention Center was placed on lockdown as firefighters extinguished the blaze. There was no threat to any of the inmates, Luna said.
Investigators are still trying to determine what exactly caused the fire.