Four people were found dead after firefighters entered a home in a wealthy Washington DC neighborhood on Thursday to battle a blaze the police chief called suspicious.

The DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, said the dead were three adults and a child.

The fire was reported about 1.30pm in a neighborhood of multi-million dollar homes in the north-west section of the District. Assistant Fire Chief Craig Baker said at a news conference that it took firefighters about 30 minutes to bring the blaze under control.



Neighbor Joe Carregal said he was walking his dog, smelled smoke and went to check out what was happening down the block from where he lives.

“It was all smoke and then boom, it went to fire, coming from the second floor,” he said. A man started knocking on the door but no one answered, Carregal said. Firefighters arrived shortly after and had to break down the door. They used two ladder trucks to get to the roof.

Within about 15 minutes “we saw three people come out on stretchers” and medics attempted CPR Carregal said.

The large brick house is in an affluent, tree-lined neighborhood near the Washington National Cathedral. A facility for the Belgian embassy is nearby.

Police Chief Cathy Lanier said her department was investigating. From initial investigations there were no obvious signs of forced entry.



Lanier said police were seeking information about a 2008 blue Porsche with Washington tags DK2418 that was seen at the home about 10.30am and later found unattended.