3 deputies killed in explosion at Los Angeles County sheriff's training facility

Three veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who specialize in arson and explosives investigations were killed when military-style ordnance detonated at a training facility on Friday morning, authorities said

Three veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who specialize in arson and explosives investigations were killed when military-style ordnance detonated at a training facility on Friday morning, authorities said.

The department picked up two explosives overnight in the L.A. County community of Lakewood and had taken them back to the department's training facility in East L.A., law enforcement sources told NBC News.

One of those two military-style devices exploded, killing the three deputies.

The explosives specialists involved in Friday's accident had assisted police in Santa Monica on Thursday, and investigators were getting a warrant to go search that location — but it remained unclear if there was any connection, a department spokesperson said. Lakewood is 22 miles southeast of Santa Monica.

Friday was the deadliest day in more than a century and a half of department history, Sheriff Robert Luna said.