December 13-2013
A home fire that police called “suspicious” has killed three members of an Iranian family in central England.
Neighbors reported hearing an explosion at the house at about 2 a.m. Monday, then looking over at it and seeing smoke pouring from the building. The home was in a wealthy neighborhood of Bolton, a suburb of Manchester.
The fire killed Hassan Rafie, 49, a merchant who had run a computer shop until recently selling it, his wife, Mahnaz, 48, and her mother, who was suffering from cancer and had recently moved from London to be taken care of by her daughter.
Dave Hull of the regional police told the London Daily Mail, “I do not want to second-guess or prejudice the outcome of these investigations but in the interests of absolute transparency want to make it clear that we are treating these deaths as suspicious.” However, he said the police had no suspects and were not looking for anyone in particular.
Two of the victims were so badly burned that it was reported investigators could not even determine which was male and which female.
The couple has two sons, Ommid, who recently received his medical license, and Arash, a medical student.
A neighbor, Maria Taylor, 48, told the Daily Mail she watched the firefighters arrive but thought the family was away. “There are normally two cars on the drive [at that time of night] and when I looked out there was only one. I convinced myself that everything was okay because there was only one car there.”
Twelve years ago, Rafie was the victim of an armed robbery in his shop—a rare event in England—in which the thief shot at him and a co-worker but missed.
