THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS.

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – Officials are investigating the circumstances behind a Tuesday morning house fire in Hidden Valley Lake, with a juvenile male in custody who may have been responsible for setting the fire.

The fire did serious damage to a home at 19407 Deer Hill Road, which was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived on scene shortly after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to South Lake County Fire Battalion Chief Scott Upton.

Later in the morning, Lake County Sheriff's deputies detained a 17-year-old male, whose name has not been released because of his minor status, according to Capt. James Bauman.

The incident was initially reported just after 8 a.m., when a woman who lived at the home called to report that her son attempted to set the home's bathroom on fire, had spread lighter fluid throughout the house and broke things inside the residence before leaving on foot, Bauman said.

About five minutes later, at approximately 8:12 a.m., another call came in reporting the home was on fire, Bauman said. A deputy who arrived in the area a few minutes later began looking for the teen.

Upton said eight fire units responded to the fire, located in a 2,500-square-foot, split-level home.

“We got pretty quick knockdown on it,” Upton said, adding that they contained the fire to the second floor, where it appeared to have originated.

By the time firefighters arrived, everyone in the home was outside, Upton said. No residents or firefighters were injured in the incident.

Shortly after 8:30 a.m., as firefighters were working on extinguishing the blaze, the Lake County Sheriff's Office put out an alert on the Nixle system, seeking information on the whereabouts of the teen.

The message said the teenager was “suspected of starting a fire at a house and throwing rocks at passing cars,” and described him as a white male, 5 feet 6 inches tall, with thin or shaved blonde hair, wearing a dark blue shirt, baggy pants and tennis shoes.

Bauman said the teen's mother reported that he might be heading to his stepfather’s home on Horseshoe Drive.

Deputies located the teenager at around 8:40 a.m. in the 18000 block of Horseshoe Drive, in front of the stepfather's home, Bauman said. A Google map indicated the location is about a half-hour's walk from the burned home.

As deputies approached the juvenile, the boy retrieved a large rock from the front yard and threw it through the front window of his stepfather’s home. Bauman said the juvenile was then detained without further incident.

A followup Nixle report announcing the teen's arrest went out shortly before 9 a.m.

Bauman said the teenager's mother told deputies that earlier in the morning her son had just finished taking a shower when she heard a loud noise in the bathroom. When she asked the boy if he was alright, he told her he had broken a shelf and then went into the garage, presumably to get something to fix the shelf.

When he returned from the garage, he had a bottle of lighter fluid and began spreading the fluid throughout the house, Bauman said.

When the woman took the lighter fluid away from the boy, he began breaking items in the home, according to Bauman. While the woman called 911 for help, the boy reportedly went into her bedroom, spread toilet paper throughout the room, and started the fire before fleeing from the home on foot.

Bauman said deputies arrested the teenager and transported him to St. Helena Hospital Clearlake for a medical and mental health clearance. He was then taken to the Lake County Juvenile Hall and booked on several arson-related charges.

When firefighters responded to the incident, they weren't aware that the fire may have been intentionally set, Upton said.

Upton said sheriff's personnel arrived at the scene about an hour after the fire to let him know what was going up. Later, some sheriff's detectives visited the scene.

Investigators were working the scene Tuesday to try to determine the cause, Upton said.

“We just brought in one of the Cal Fire prevention officers and we've activated the Lake County Arson Task Force,” he said.

Upton estimated the home's value to be at about $300,000, with the property saved valued at half that amount.

“It has a severe amount of damage to the inside of the home,” Upton said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .