King County fire investigators say the Molotov cocktail a 41-year-old man threw at sheriff’s deputies who approached him during an investigation near Auburn on Tuesday started the conflagration that killed him.

According to Sgt. Cindi West of the King County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were investigating a vandalism complaint at a home in the 33100 block of East Lake Holm Drive on Tuesday afternoon when the man pitched the Molotov cocktail, ran to a nearby structure and barricaded himself inside.

Hit by fiery spray from the hurled Molotov cocktail, a deputy sustained minor burns to his face and neck.

According to West, the deputy said he had to “stop, drop and roll” to extinguish the flames. Doctors at Valley Medical Center in Renton treated and released the unnamed deputy Tuesday.

According to West, fire investigators said their work revealed that the fire that started with the Molotov cocktail quickly spread to and engulfed the structure, and that the man was either unwilling or unable to escape it. Deputies’ attempts to put out the fire were unsuccessful.

Fire investigators said the man probably died from smoke inhalation, but it will be King County Medical Examiner’s job determine the specific cause and nature of the man’s death, and who he was.

Neighborhood disturbance

Deputies initially responded to a disturbance at the house around 10 a.m. when a neighbor called because the man who lived there was “screaming at the top of his lungs.”

Deputies received another call just before 1 p.m. when a neighbor called police to complain that the same man had thrown rocks at his house and then broken the windshield of his car. Deputies said they had responded to the house many times before regarding threats, disturbances and mental health complaints.

Because of the man’s history, four deputies, two armed with less lethal weapons, responded to the house to contact the man about the crime. When deputies arrived, the man was standing outside on a deck. Deputies told him he was under arrest for vandalism, and he needed to come down off the deck.

The man lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it at the deputies, striking one in the face. The man then ran into a large shed and barricaded himself inside. Within minutes a fire started inside the shed and deputies tried to extinguish the fire with a garden hose as King County firefighters were called to the scene.

Deputies said the fire engulfed the shed quickly and spread to a mobile home nearby. Firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze as deputies searched the area for the man, unsure if he had fled from the building during the fire.

King County Guardian One, TAC30, and K-9 searched the neighborhood and a nearby wooded area for the man. Just after 7 p.m., after the fire was extinguished, fire investigators entered the building to conduct a search and discovered a body inside.