LASD deputy from Sylmar who died after shooting range fire in 2023 laid to rest

A veteran Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy who died from injuries he sustained in a fire inside a mobile shooting range in Castaic was laid to rest Thursday, May 9.

Family, and clergy who knew him, eulogized the 51-year-old Alfredo “Freddy” Flores at St. Didacus Catholic Church in Sylmar.

Flores died on April 20, six months after the fire broke out inside the shooting range located at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic.

He was from Sylmar, family said, and had attended services at St. Didacus for years.

“I know exactly where Freddy and the family sat,” said Father Bob Garon, a pastor at the church. “Pretty much two-thirds of the way back…every week, at the 5 o’clock mass.”

Garon said Flores “always made a point to come up to say something to me after the mass.” He said the two became friends.

“I appreciate … I appreciate the friendship that we had, the trust that he had in me to give him the right message on Saturday evenings,” Garon said, before nodding and letting out a sigh.

The fire that killed Flores started inside the trailer midmorning on Oct. 10 last year.

Both Flores and another deputy managed to get out of the trailer but suffered severe burns. They were transported to a nearby hospital while firefighters struggled for hours to contain the blaze, their efforts hampered by live ammunition exploding inside the trailer.

The other deputy injured has not been identified. And the Sheriff’s Department has not said what they believe started the fire.

Flores worked for the Sheriff’s Department for 22 years. He worked in the jails at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic, which includes Pitchess. He also served as a deputy at the Sheriff’s Altadena station.

At the time of his death, Flores was working in the Sheriff’s court services unit.

Before the ceremony Thursday, police officers and Sheriff’s deputies from around the region lined up beside other mourners. As bagpipes played and rows of deputies in their uniforms saluted, the pallbearers carried Flores’ casket, draped with an American flag, from the hearse to the altar to the church’s interior.

Inside, his casket was flanked on either side by a wreath of bright yellow flowers in the shape of a Sheriff’s deputy badge and two portraits of Flores, one as a younger man and another as an older veteran deputy.

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