Victim of fatal Antioch garage fire identified

The person who died in a garage fire near downtown Antioch early Thursday morning has been identified as 47-year-old Maurice Makinano of Antioch, the Contra Costa County Sheriff Coroner’s Division said Thursday.

Makinano was found about 6 a.m. Thursday inside the burning two-car garage near the corner of Ninth and J streets, the coroner said. Steve Hill, a Contra Costa County Fire Protection District spokesman, said Makinano was not a resident of the house, but Hill couldn’t clarify why he was there.
Makinano was treated at scene but died there.

A fire inspector, who suffered a lacerated finger at the scene, was taken to a local hospital for treatment, Hill said.

The garage and a vehicle inside were destroyed. The house itself was not damaged at all, and no one else was injured.

Hill said the cause of the fire and the presence of the victim in the garage are under investigation.