CLEARFIELD -- Neighbors remember Frank R. Lopez as a kind man who was willing to help others.
Lopez, 60, of Clearfield, was declared dead after firefighters pulled him from a burned-out mobile home at 1285 W. 500 North, Clearfield, Thursday night.
"He seemed like such a nice man," said Jacque Silvester, who has lived in the mobile home park since 1981.
Clearfield Assistant Police Chief Mike Stenquist said Friday the state medical examiner's office determined Lopez died from two self-inflicted wounds to the abdomen from a small-caliber handgun.
Lopez poured gasoline throughout the mobile home and started the fire before shooting himself, Stenquist said.
Stenquist said Lopez "was dealing with some family issues."
Silvester said Lopez and his family moved into their mobile home, which is around the corner from her home, in the early 1990s.
Lopez, who played guitar in a local band, always checked on Silvester's elderly mother, who lived next door to him. "He was just really, really sweet," Silvester said.
Stenquist said neighbors saw smoke coming from the home and called 911 about 8 p.m.
Fire crews from North Davis Fire District, Syracuse, Sunset and Clinton responded, as did officers from the Clearfield Police Department and the Davis County Sheriff's Office.
Silvester said she was on her porch visiting with her sister-in-law when she saw smoke coming from behind her mother's mobile home. She went over to investigate and saw that the smoke was coming out of Lopez's air- conditioning unit.
"I knew (Lopez) was home," Silvester said, because she had seen him drive by earlier.
Silvester said while she was trying to determine where the smoke was coming from, Lopez's wife arrived. The two tried to get in the home, but the doors were locked.
"(Lopez's wife) tried to get in through the windows, but I told her she shouldn't and I screamed for someone to call 911," Silvester said.
She said the fire was one of the worst she has seen in the mobile home park.
"It was just horrid. We knew he was in there and we couldn't go in."
Fire crews had the fire out within 15 minutes of arriving, Stenquist said.
An ambulance took Lopez to Steed Park, where a medical helicopter had landed, but the man was pronounced dead before he was loaded onto the helicopter, Stenquist said.
The fire destroyed the home.
As a precaution, Stenquist said, investigators treated the home as a crime scene until the cause of death and the cause of the fire were determined.
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