PHOENIX, ARIZONA, FIREFIGHTERS WERE CALLED to a house fire shortly before 10 pm Saturday night after neighbors reported hearing an explosion at the home.  When they arrived, they found some smoke showing, a fire just beginning to break through and the homeowner standing out front with burns over the upper part of his body. 

As they started into the house, a series of small explosions started up and the FF’s withdrew back outside.  After putting out the fire that destroyed much of the home, they called in the police bomb squad to investigate and make the area secure.  It turned out that the victim is a military armament collector who also reloads his own ammuntion for his firearms.  They also found many inert hand grenades and rocket grenades.

This video report from KSAZ-V Ch. 10 shows what happened:

The victim is hospitalized with burns to his arms, face and the top of his head.  The man’s wife said her husband was in the “reloading room” at the time of the fire, but he was not reloading ammunition.  The police found nothing illegal in the house, but the neighbors are still jittery.