A man was presumed dead after his home in Arlington, Va., exploded into flames and burned for hours on Monday night as the police were preparing to search the house to investigate reports of possible gunfire, the authorities said.
The authorities identified the man as James Yoo, 56, of Arlington and said that human remains found at the scene were believed to be his. A medical examiner will confirm the identity.
Mr. Yoo’s only previous encounters with the local police before Monday were related to a couple of noise complaints, but David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, said that Mr. Yoo had submitted tips over the years about “alleged frauds” that he believed had been perpetrated against him.
The F.B.I. did not open any investigations based on correspondence from Mr. Yoo, Mr. Sundberg said.
Chief Andy Penn of the Arlington County Police Department declined to say at a news conference on Tuesday that the authorities were “fully confident” that the remains that were found were those of Mr. Yoo.
“All factors point to that it is this individual,” he said, “but that has to be confirmed, and it is going to take time to confirm that as well, but there is a lot more of the investigation that needs to occur.”
The cause of the explosion remained under investigation on Tuesday, the authorities said.
Initially, the police were called out to the house because they had received a call about possible gunfire in the area, Chief Penn said. After the police found that the occupant had fired a flare gun more than 30 times inside his home, Chief Penn said, the department obtained a search warrant and tried to make contact with him.
The occupant did not engage with officers and barricaded himself inside the home, according to the authorities. Chief Penn said that as the police were trying to serve the search warrant, several rounds of what was believed to be gunfire were heard inside the home, which prompted the police to deploy “nonflammable, less-lethal chemical munition” inside the house that was intended to “cause irritation” so that the occupant would come outside.
Jason Jenkins, an assistant chief of the Arlington County Fire Department, said that in an effort to minimize any risk of danger to others, neighbors who lived in the adjacent duplex unit were evacuated, and the gas line to the home was cut off.
The home exploded around 8:25 p.m. Video of the explosion that circulated widely on social media shows the home detonating in a matter of seconds, sending debris skyward as flames shoot into the night sky.
Chief Penn said that no police officers, firefighters or neighbors were seriously injured because of the explosion. About 10 or 12 homes in the area were “impacted” by the explosion, he said, but he did not describe the extent the damage.
It was not clear whether the gas line was cut in anticipation of an explosion. Nor was it clear if the chemical munition deployed inside the home could have played a role.
Christine Hauser contributed reporting.