The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office identified two men who died in the Palisades fire that razed homes and other structures in the Pacific Palisades last month.
Randall Miod, 55, and Hak Wong, 69, were two of the 12 people killed as the Palisades fire blazed nearly 20,000 acres. Another 17 people died in the Eaton fire that destroyed parts of Altadena and Pasadena.
Miod died on Jan. 9 in a home in the 20900 block of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, from “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal injuries.”
Wong died on Jan. 25 in a hospital from blunt trauma. He also had thermal burns, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Investigators with the Medical Examiner’s Office is working to investigate five other people killed in the Palisades and Eaton fires. Officials said victim identifications could take weeks as usual methods like visual identification and fingerprinting may not be possible in most cases.
Instead, the Medical Examiner’s Office is using dental record comparison, reviews of medical records, radiographs to look for medical appliances and their associated serial numbers and familial DNA associated with reported missing persons to help identify victims. They then talk with law enforcement agencies to get more information about reported missing persons and follow up with each person’s family.