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       D.C. police are investigating as homicides the deaths of two people who died in fires in April and in October 2022 in Northeast and Northwest Washington, according to authorities.

       Police said the incidents are not related. No arrests have been made.

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       The latest fire occurred about 10:20 a.m. April 22 in an apartment building in the 1400 block of Saratoga Avenue NE, in the Brentwood neighborhood. Police said the body of James Lavender, 64, was found after firefighters extinguished the blaze.

       An autopsy found that Lavender had been beaten before the fire, which displaced nine residents, four of them children.

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       On Oct. 30, 2022, police said firefighters responded about 9:40 a.m. to a fire in a residential building in the 1600 block of Park Road NW, in Mount Pleasant. Police said three people were injured and taken to hospitals.

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       On Nov. 4, police said one of those victims died. She was identified as Maria Lopez, 45. Police said Thursday that the medical examiner ruled Lopez’s death a homicide from smoke inhalation and burns.

       Police did not comment on how they think the fire started or whether Lopez or anyone else had been targeted.

       The D.C. fire department said the fire was confined to the fourth floor of the five-story building, and that some people were rescued by ladders.

       There have been 214 homicides in D.C. this year, a 37 percent increase over this time in 2022.

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