File photo of a police car. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
SALLISAW, Okla. (CBS Houston/AP) — Sequoyah County authorities say a man who died in a fire at his home may have spontaneously combusted.
Danny Vanzandt, 66, died in the blaze on Monday.
Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart says several neighbors entered the home when they saw smoke and assumed trash had caught fire. Then they realized a person was burning.
Lockhart said the remains were in the kitchen and there was no other damage in the home. The sheriff says there was no apparent source of the fire.
“This is a case that I’ve never seen before,” Lockhart told KFSM-TV.
Authorities say the man had a history of heavy drinking and smoking.
No cause of the fire has been determined and Lockhart says spontaneous combustion has not been ruled out.
“I think there’s only about 200 cases worldwide, and I’m not saying this happened. I’m just saying that we haven’t ruled it out,” Lockhart told KFSM.
The body was sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Tulsa for an autopsy.
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