A strange tale is emerging from the investigation of an explosion and fire in northwest Reno Wednesday morning.

Investigators say a man set fire to a home, then took his own life

Firemen arrived to find a home already damaged and engulfed in flames. Minutes earlier neighbors say they heard a loud explosion.
"It shook my house<" says Joe Stoltz who lives in a home nearby, "I said what was that?

Stoltz ran outside and saw the fire. "I pounded on the window to make sure no one was in there." There was no answer.

Reno Police and Fire investigators say that explosion was the beginning of the fire. They say a man believed to be the resident of the home apparently started the fire using some kind of accelerant.

A neighbor who said he knew the owner of the house for many years said the man liked to hunt and reload his own ammunition. It's not known if those materials could have played a role. Investigators from the U-S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were asked to assist in the investigation.

Whatever the cause, the fire spread quickly through the damaged structure and proved a difficult and dangerous one to fight. At one point firefighters were pulled outside the structure for fear the roof was about to collapse.

In the home's back yard fire fighters found the body of the victim. Release of the cause of death is pending an autopsy, but authorities are already calling it a suicide.

The vicitm's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Neighbors said the owner of the home had lived there since childhood.
What might have caused him to set fire to his home and take his own life is unknown.