ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST >> Coroner’s officials and sheriff’s homicide investigators continued working Friday to recover the remains of two people discovered in an area burned during the recent San Gabriel Complex fires in the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa, authorities said.
The badly charred remains were first discovered shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday along San Gabriel Canyon Road, near the origin point of the Reservoir Fire, which was ignited June 20 when a pickup truck crashed off the side of the road, bursting into flames and killing the driver.
“The identification and gender of the remains are unknown as they were burned beyond recognition,” according to Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Information Bureau said.
“Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner personnel indicate it may take approximately four weeks to accurately identify the remains,” she said.
A passery-by first reported making the grisly discovery.
“A fire crew from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, working in the area, was flagged down by a person who indicated they had located human remains,” sheriff’s officials said in a written statement.
Sheriff’s officials responded to the scene but did not immediately find the remains described by the witness, officials said.
“The Los Angeles County Fire Department conducted an initial search from the air, but did not locate any signs of remains in the steep and rough terrain,” according to the statement.
Members of the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team continued searching on the ground and ultimately found “what appears to be the human remains of two people,” according to Deputy Trina Schrader of the sheriff’s Information Bureau.
The remains were discovered on a ravine just east of the Morris Dam, Winter said.
Sheriff’s officials cordoned off the scene and kept watch overnight. Sheriff’s homicide detectives and coroner’s Special Operations and Recovery Team members, who specialize in excavating and recovering remains, returned to the site at dawn Friday to resume their investigation and recovery efforts.
The remains were exhumed Friday afternoon, officials said.
It was unclear whether the death were a result of the fire, or occurred before it began.
The Reservoir Fire grew to more than 1,100 acres before being contained, U.S. Forest Service officials said.
About 90 minutes after the Reservoir Fire ignited, a second fire broke out in the hillsides north of Duarte, officials said. The Fish Fire, named due to it’s proximity to Fish Canyon, scorched more than 4,200 acres before being contained. The cause remained under investigation Friday, U.S. Forest Service Fire spokesman Nathan Judy said.
The two separate but nearby wildfires were christened the San Gabriel Complex fires.

PHOTO: Los Angeles sheriff’s County Deputy Harper looks over a ridge on June 23, 2016, where a truck was found that was believed to have started the Reservoir Fire, one half of the two-fire San Gabriel Complex Fire, that ignited in the Angeles National Forest north of the San Gabriel Valley on June 20, 2016. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/ Pasadena Star-News)