SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – Police are treating a fatal fire at a city-run elderly housing complex as a possible double homicide.

The bodies of Edelmira Miranda, 67, and Milagros Rosario, 69, were discovered Friday morning after a suspicious fire gutted their apartment at the Carpe Diem Homes complex.

Police Capt. William Noonan said Saturday that police were treating the deaths as homicides until the medical examiner determines how the couple died. He declined to comment further on what investigators found at the fire scene.

Noonan said police are trying to determine if there’s a link between the fire and an armed robbery at a nearby supermarket about an hour earlier.

The couple’s deaths and the robbery, combined with an unrelated gang shooting, prompted police Commissioner Edward Flynn on Friday to order a 25-percent increase in police patrols on Friday and Saturday nights during the summer, The Republican of Springfield reported.

Flynn said the increase was part of a summer deployment plan which he decided to implement early.

Miranda and Rosario were found after firefighters at a station across the street noticed the blaze and tried to force their way into the apartment. The flames were too intense, and they were forced back.

Luis Rivera, who knew the deceased, said they were “a beautiful couple.”

The woman was confined to a bed, and he served as her caretaker, Rivera said.

“He was a good old man with everyone,” said Rivera. “I never heard anyone say anything wrong about him.”

-Associated Press