Jan. 10--FONTANA, Calif. -- Firefighters found a man dead in a backyard early Monday morning as they fought a blaze at a Fontana home.
The call reporting the fire came in about 3:15 a.m. Firefighters rushed to the 9100 block of Lemon Court and saw the second floor of a two-story home fully engulfed in flames.
They found the man, 71, dead from a gunshot wound to the head in the backyard of the home, according to a news release issued by the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
When Coroner's investigators moved the man's body, they found a handgun underneath him, said Fontana police Sgt. Billy Green. Detectives now believe the man killed himself.
"Apparently the man was distraught over the death of his wife," Green wrote in an email. "There were no other people in the house at the time of the suicide/fire and no surrounding homes were damaged."
Firefighters did not find any other victims in or around the home.
They extinguished the fire in about 15 minutes and were able to keep it contained the the second story.
Fire investigators later determined that arson was the likely cause of the blaze, as it was set using accelerants and there were multiple ignition sites throughout the home, according to the news release.
Fontana police will conduct the rest of the investigation.
Copyright 2012 - KTLA-TV, Los Angeles
