Buda firefighters sift through the rubble of the charred garage. (photo by Sean Kimmons)

by JEN BIUNDO and SEAN KIMMONS

Hays County investigators announced Tuesday that they have opened a homicide investigation in the aftermath of a garage fire and home explosion that rocked the Buda neighborhood of Hays Country Oaks Saturday morning.

Steven Wayne Woelfel, 55, who owned the home at 1132 Live Oak Loop where the fire occurred, was identified as the victim, said Hays County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Leroy Opiela.

Investigators say one fire was deliberately started in the detached garage, which sits about 20 feet from the house. Buda firefighters arrived on the scene of the garage fire at 11 a.m. and found the structure fully engulfed, said Buda Fire Chief Clay Huckaby. About five minutes later, an explosion blew out the windows of the home and ripped the back wall off the structure.

Investigators say the explosion may have been caused by candles left lit in front of an ignited gas stove.

Because the garage sits to the side of the house and the explosion pushed out the front and back of the house, firefighters escaped the brunt of the blast. Huckaby said he couldn’t speculate if the explosion was deliberately rigged to injure first responders arriving on the scene.

“I’m just grateful that nobody got hurt when the house exploded,” Huckaby said.

Next door neighbors Terry and Debbie Arenz said Woelfel, who owned Precision Tile, a laying tile business, lived on his own. They described their neighbor of 15 years as reclusive and anti-government.

“He was a very different breed of cat,” said Terry Arenz. “He was anti-government for sure.”

Terry recalls Woelfel trying to get a postman fired when he was unhappy with the location of his mailbox. And when a cell phone tower was erected in the area, Woelfel became enraged and paranoid.

Debbie Arenz said she was at home when she heard the loud explosion, which she believes was deliberately set.

Investigators say Woelfel’s family, concerned after not hearing from him for an extended period of time, called the sheriff’s office Friday and requested they conduct a welfare check.

“We were asked to go out on Friday to check on this guy because his family hadn’t heard from him in awhile, but no one answered the door,” Opiela said.

The sheriff’s office has asked the Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers to help with the investigation. The home site is still considered a crime scene as the investigation continues.

“We use the Texas Rangers to assist us on several cases, by giving us access to the DPS crime lab,” Opiela said. He did not say what investigators discovered to label the incident as a possible homicide.

Opiela did not immediately release a suspected cause of death prior to the autopsy. Investigators have said it’s possible that Woelfel died of a gunshot wound prior to the fire being set.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Hays County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at 512-393-7814.