ONALASKA, Wash. -- A man was found dead inside an Onalaska home after a suspicious early morning fire, said the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire started shortly before 6 a.m. Friday at a home in the 400 block of Burnt Ridge Road.

“I looked across and saw the flames and the house was fully engulfed,” said neighbor Dick Decker.

He ran to his neighbor's house, trying to get the man out of the burning home.

“I went over and pounded on the windows and doors and by that time it was so hot you could barely get near,” Decker said.

When investigators made their way inside the destroyed home, they found a man dead inside. The Lewis County Sheriff's Office said it’s treating the fire as suspicious.

“There are questions we're trying to answer about the scene,” said Sgt. Dusty Breen.

Decker said the man who rented the home lost his job as a steel worker after hurting his arm. As a result, he had not been able to pay the rent and the power had recently been shut off at the house, which rules out electrical problems.

The victim’s girlfriend said she is devastated to lose who she called a wonderful man and father to four young girls. Investigators have not yet released the man’s name.

It is unsettling for neighbors in the usually very quiet Onalaska.

”I've lived on this hill since 1968, and we've never had problems here. For that, it scares me,” said resident Marian Burton.

Investigators are still looking at whether the fire was accidental or intentionally set. They said it may be until the middle of next week before autopsy results show exactly what killed the man.

If he was deliberately killed, it would be the first slaying in Onalaska in five years.