Woman Found Dead Inside Burned Tacoma Home Was Shot

Police said a woman found dead inside a home where a fire erupted early Sunday had been shot multiple times, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulgham said the fire was third suspicious fire at the home over the past 10 years including an unsolved arson in 2007.

Joe Meinecke of the Tacoma Fire Department said the blaze broke out at about 3:20 a.m. Sunday at home in the 7200 block of South Lawrence Street.

Firefighters arrived to find a two-alarm fire extending from a fifth wheel trailer into the home's attic.

WATCH IT: Burned Home Where Woman Found Dead Site Of Earlier Fires

Neighbors said they first heard a loud explosion then saw the trailer and home engulfed in flames.

Neighbor Timothy Woorell told KIRO he saw the man who lives in the house run outside covered in flames.

"The front of him was on fire when he came outside. He was trying to put it out when he realized his wife was inside so he said, 'I'm going back in for my wife.' So he went inside and he never came back out," said Woorell.

Woorell said he also ran into the house to try and help but had to turn back because of smoke, flames and the smell of gasoline fumes.

"I can imagine the house exploding because the smell of gasoline fumes was overwhelming," said Woorell.

Firefighters searched both the trailer and the house and found a woman dead inside the house.

Fulgham said Monday investigators later learned that woman had been shot multiple times.

A homicide investigation is being conducted by Tacoma police. Fire officials are investigating the cause and origin of the fire.

The man who lives in the house, who was critically injured, was transported to a hospital, where he remained Monday.

Police have been unable to speak to the man about the fire or his wife's shooting death.

The medical examiner has not released the woman's name.