Members of elite explosives unit were at sheriff's training center.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna is hugged after three deputies were killed in an explosion at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Biscailuz Center Academy training facility in East L.A. on Friday. Sarah Reingewirtz - staff photographer.

By NATHANIEL PERCY, SIERRA VAN DER BRUG AND SEAN EMERY | STAFF WRITERS

Three deputies in an elite arson and explosives unit were killed when an explosion erupted at a Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department training facility in East L.A. on Friday morning.

The blast just before 7:30 a.m. at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training facility at 1060 N. Eastern Ave. resulted in the largest loss of life for the Sheriff's Department in a single instance since 1857, Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference.

The deputies later were identified as Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn, all assigned to the Arson Explosives Detail of the Special Enforcement Bureau.

Few details of what led to the explosion were initially available. Luna said a Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad had cleared the scene only minutes before the 11:45 a.m. news conference. And the sheriff cautioned that a full accounting of what led to the blast will likely take days or weeks to complete.

The explosion was an "isolated" occurrence, the sheriff said, and there is no ongoing danger to the public. But he also acknowledged, "There's a lot more that we don't know than what we do know.

"We lost three lives, and we want to make sure we know what happened," Luna said. "We want to make sure we don't repeat this."

The scene was still active up until minutes before the late-morning news conference, with a Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad declaring the blast area safe, Luna said, adding that the investigation was in the beginning stages.

Various reports indicated the explosion may have involved materials found at a Santa Monica home on Thursday that were collected by sheriff's bomb squad personnel.

A resident of that complex told KTLA Channel 5 at the scene that police and sheriff's officials had been at the building Thursday to retrieve some old grenades that a tenant found in a storage unit, apparently left behind by a previous tenant.

A search on Friday afternoon prompted an evacuation of at least part of that apartment complex as investigators swept the property for any additional potentially dangerous materials.

Earlier, at the news conference, Luna described members of the Special Enforcement Bureau, where the explosion occurred, as being the "best of the best," and the arson detail as an elite unit whose members average more than 1,000 calls a year.

Luna said the deputies had a collective 74 years of law enforcement experience, including a 19-year department member, a 22-year member and a 33-year veteran.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Friday afternoon ordered all flags in L.A. County to be lowered to half mast in honor of the three deputies.

Jason Zabala, director of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and a member of the sheriff's SWAT team, became emotional as he talked about the loss of what he called some of the department's finest deputies.

Zabala knew all three of the deceased, two of them since high school, he said.

"It's something you realized from day one when you signed up for the job that you know, it's gonna be a dangerous job," he said. "As the years go on, you realize how dangerous it is. You do this job for a reason."

He described the deputies killed in the explosion as "smart" and always "motivated to work." No one else was injured, Luna said.

KABC Channel 7, citing helicopter footage on Friday morning, said it appeared something had exploded next to a bomb squad vehicle.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X she spoke with U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli "about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles."

Saadullah Sheikh, a spokesman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said firefighters were dispatched at 7:27 a.m. and arrived at the same time. That agency has a facility across the street from the sheriff's training center.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said on X he had been briefed, was monitoring the situation and has "offered full assistance."

Around 5 p.m., a law enforcement procession began Friday to transfer the deputies' bodies from the training center to the medical examiner's office.

City News Service contributed to this report.