Family files wrongful death lawsuit against LASD after deputy was burned in mobile firing range fire

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The family of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who died after catching fire in a mobile firing range is suing the county and the sheriff's department for wrongful death, saying the department failed to clean up gunpowder and other flammable materials.

"The sheriff's department failed to comply with multiple orders from Cal/OSHA... and allowed this flammable gunpowder to accumulate over time," said attorney John Carpenter, who is representing the family of Deputy Freddie Flores. "It accumulates and accumulates, and if you don't clean it the way the manufacturer tells you to clean it, and if you don't clean it the way Cal/OSHA ordered the county to clean it, eventually it's going to catch fire."

Flores was using a mobile firing range at Pitchess Detention Center for firearm training when it caught fire in October 2023. Flores suffered third-degree burns on most of his body and eventually died from the injuries about half a year later.

Carpenter says the sheriff's department uses the mobile fire ranges as a way to save money by bringing them to various parts of the county so deputies don't run up overtime driving to standard firing ranges. But the trailers, he says, are inherently unsafe.

"The more compact it is, and the more you use it, and the more undischarged gunpowder that goes in it, the more of a tinderbox it becomes," Carpenter said at a news conference Monday morning. "Stop exposing our deputies and law enforcement to this deadly threat."

Carpenter cited three other fires that broke out in the county's mobile firing ranges.

Paperwork shows that Cal/OSHA cited the sheriff's department several times for unsafe violations in the mobile firing ranges and fined it more than $300,000.

Eyewitness News reached out to the sheriff's department for comment, but received no response before our deadline.

The 51-year-old was a 22-year veteran of the sheriff's department. He leaves behind a wife and four children.