Authorities investigate whether man may have died from spontaneous combustion

Oklahoma authorities investigating a mysterious death have come up with a rare theory. They are looking into whether or not a 65-year-old man died from spontaneously bursting into flames."This is a case that I've never seen before," said Sheriff Ron Lockhart.

Family members found 65-year-old Danny Vanzandt dead on Monday inside his home near Muldrow. "The body was burned and it was incinerated," said Sheriff Lockhart. He said he believes the death could be a rare case of spontaneous human combustion. "I think there's only about 200 cases worldwide and I'm not saying that this has happened I'm just saying that we haven't ruled it out."

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He says the fire didn't damage the house and there were no signs of struggle. "There was no damage to the furniture or anything around the fire, so it was a low heat fire." Family say they noticed the back window of the man's pickup truck was blown out. Investigators sent the body to the medical examiner's office in Tulsa.

"If you read about spontaneous human combustion that's what we have here," said Sheriff Lockhart. The Sheriff says Vanzandt was an alcoholic and avid smoker. When asked if it's possible Vanzandt accidentally killed himself some other way, like dropping a cigarette on himself, Sheriff Lockhart replied: "A cigarette burn will not do that." The autopsy report is pending.