4 dead in burned home

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

This Thursday, May 8, 2014 photo shows the types of fireworks purchased Sunday, May 4, 2014 by Darrin Campbell, according to the Phantom Fireworks store in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Tamara Lush)

A man, his wife and their two teenage children were shot before the million-dollar home they were renting burned down in what investigators called arson, a fire perhaps exacerbated by fireworks and gasoline, authorities said Thursday.

Autopsies were still being completed to determine how they died, but investigators have said they are looking into the possibility of a murder-suicide. Authorities recovered a gun at the home registered to Darrin Campbell and he bought an "exceedingly large amount" of fireworks and gas cans days before the fire, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Col. Donna Lusczynski said.

Authorities still have not positively identified the bodies, but the family has not been accounted for and a relative said they were inside the home when it burned.

As flames shot through the roof Wednesday morning, neighbours reported explosions, presumably hearing fireworks go off inside. Authorities have not indicated who may have started the fire or why.

Campbell bought $650 of fireworks on Sunday and authorities said fireworks were found throughout the five-bedroom home. Still, it wasn't clear what role the fireworks might have played, though Lusczynski said they could've been used to ignite the fire or keep it going.

Campbell had been an executive for several high-profile businesses. He was currently working at a records management firm and volunteering as treasurer at his children's private school. His wife, Kimberly, was a stay-at-home mom, according to her father, Gordon Lambie.

The family moved to Tampa more than a decade ago. They sold their home in 2012 for $750,000 and signed a two-year lease for the 6,000 square-foot home owned by former tennis pro James Blake. He bought the home in the Avila community in 2005 for $1.5 million, according to property records.