Two volunteer firefighters are suspected of setting last fall's Malibu wildfire that killed three people and destroyed about 350 homes.
Investigators believe the men started the Nov. 2 blaze in hopes of gaining full-time firefighting jobs by helping put it out, NBC's "Now" reported Wednesday, citing unidentified Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators.No charges have been filed. The men are under investigation by a grand jury, NBC and the Los Angeles Times said.
"We focused our attention on two young men," Sheriff Sherman Block told NBC. "These young men were volunteer firefighters. We believe that these two individuals were responsible for starting the fire."
The men have denied any wrongdoing, the newspaper said Thursday.
The men had claimed they were returning from a pool-cleaning job when they spotted the fire and that they used a garden hose to try to put it out.
The men failed lie detector tests, the NBC and Times reports said, citing unidentified sources.
It wasn't immediately known what fire departments they were working for at the time of the blaze.
NBC said the men told arson investigators they spotted the fire in Topanga Canyon and began to fight it by hooking up a garden hose to a fire hydrant. Hydrants don't accept garden hoses. The men said they stopped a plumber driving by who had an adapter.