HOUSTON – A charred hole left in a wooden-picket fence is now the center of a fire marshal investigation, while the man believed to have caused is hospitalized.
Deputies said the Cy-Fair Fire Department responded to an explosive fire on the 8200 block of Pine Falls Drive around 3 a.m. Saturday.
After putting out the fire, officials requested arson detectives and the Harris County fire marshal to investigate chemicals found inside the house.
"I heard a couple of little pops in this direction from my house," neighbor John Douglas said.
As investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire, the homeowner told officials the chemicals were used for rocket propellants.
"Not really sure what he was doing. We're trying to figure all of that out right now," said Deputy Chief Dean Hensley, with the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office. "Investigators found their called precursors of possible explosives, chemicals and things like that."
Hensley didn't go into details about what sort of powders and chemicals were found inside the home, but says it was enough to bring bomb squads out to the quiet neighborhood.
"It frightens me that someone would do that in their garage with people living so close together. We could've -- any of us -- been hurt by this," neighbor Debbie Clelland said.
Some neighbors said the homeowner was making fireworks or possibly bottle rockets.
"We have indications of some of those types of devices, and things like that being found and those are the things that we're collecting right now and processing," Hensley said.
But the opinion that really matters is that of investigators, who said they still aren't sure. Their goal right was to find out what's illegal and what's not.
"Some of these chemicals and things that he does have, it depends on how you use them, whether he did something wrong or not. So we've got to work through all of that," Hensley said.
According to the Fire Marshal's Office, the man was arrested and charged with criminal mischief. There is a possibility of more charges.