Investigators were trying to determine whether to charge the man, whose name was not immediately released.
``He said that his wife had left him, and he didn't want her to have everything that he had worked so hard for,'' sheriff's spokesman Lt. Pat Joyner said Thursday. ``He never threatened to hurt anybody. As far as the house is concerned, it's his property, he can do anything he wants with it.''
There was no insurance on the property, and detectives were trying to contact the man's wife to see if she was listed as an owner. If she is, the case would be presented to the district attorney for possible criminal charges, Joyner said.
Firefighters were called to the scene early Wednesday when a passer-by spotted the blaze. Authorities found the estranged husband in his yard holding a gun; he ordered emergency workers to let the trailer burn.
After the fire burned out, the man left his gun in his truck and deputies took him into custody.
``He didn't point the gun at anybody,'' Joyner said. ``After the house burned down, he got in his truck and drove around back. Then, he sat there with the gun in his lap until we arrived.''
