8 People Found Dead After Tulsa Suburb House Fire; Homicide Feared

Broken Arrow, Okla., police and fire department investigate the scene of a fire with multiple fatalities at the corner South Hickory Ave. and West Galveston St. on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Eight people were found dead Thursday after a fire was extinguished at a Tulsa-area house, and police said they were investigating the deaths as homicides. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) — Eight people were found dead Thursday in a burning Tulsa-area house in what was being investigated as multiple homicides, police said.

The fire was reported about 4 p.m. Thursday in a quiet residential area of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 13 miles (20 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa.

Broken Arrow police said that although the fire and the deaths were being investigated as homicides, they did not believe an immediate threat to the public existed.

Police spokesman Ethan Hutchins said the scene was complex “with a lot of moving parts,” so no other information was being released immediately. Witnesses told police that a family of eight had lived in the house, two adults and six children, but the bodies have not been positively identified, Hutchins said.

“Understandably, this is a shock to Broken Arrow. It’s a safe city. Broken Arrow doesn’t have this kind of situation every day,” Hutchins said.

Catelin Powers said she was driving with her children nearby when she saw a column of smoke near her house, so she drove past to investigate.

“When I got closer to the house, I saw smoke pouring out from the very top of the house, which looked like maybe the attic,” she told The Associated Press.

Two men and a woman on her phone were standing in front of the house, Powers said, when another man emerged from the front door dragging an apparently unconscious, unresponsive woman.

Suspecting the woman was dead, Powers said she drove on so her children would be spared the sight.

Broken Arrow is Tulsa’s biggest suburb, with almost 115,000 residents.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting in the investigation, he said.