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(KSL News) -- One man is dead after what started as a house fire in Magna and quickly turned into a standoff with police.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputies are trying to figure out why a man may have started his home on fire in Magna, then began firing off gunshots.
It happened just before 9 am this morning.
Deputies say a neighbor called 9-1-1 to report the home on fire. But when officers and firefighters arrived, the man fired shots at them.
Neighbors were evacuated, and several blocks of 3500 South was roped off.
The man inside was in his 70's, and a family members of the resident who lived above the suspect describes the old man as unstable.
After failed attempts to communicate with the man who barracaded himself in the basement, the SWAT was sent in. Once inside, smoke poured out of the house, and the man was found dead.
The cause of death is still being investiaged. No word on what caused the man to set his house on fire or start shooting.
Deputies say no one else was hurt by the gunfire.
(The Associated Press Contributed to this Story)
