SAN MARCOS, Calif. — A man was found trapped inside a burning car on a North County street Tuesday night, and an investigation into how that happened led deputies to a nearby home where a woman was found dead.

It all began around 6:30 p.m., when residents on Foothill View Place in Escondido noticed that a car on their block had gone up in flames. Neighbors ran into the street and saw that a man appeared to be trapped inside, so they banded together and tried to break him out, grabbing hammers to break the glass.

“He actually sat up before I got there to open the window. He actually sat up and looked,” Don Gibson, who lives nearby, told FOX 5. “He just collapsed after that. He went unresponsive.”

Firefighters arrived to help, getting the man to the hospital where he was said to be in grave condition.

Based on what they could piece together about the man from the scene, investigators went to a “related residence” on El Toro Lane in San Marcos — a different city, but just a couple minutes’ drive away. That’s where they found a woman dead inside an address believed to be connected to the incident in some way.

“Deputies entered the residence to check the welfare of a woman who lives there. Unfortunately, they found the woman deceased inside,” a news release from San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.

Officials wouldn’t immediately share further details about what potential relationship the two incidents had. The department’s homicide unit is leading the investigation and they don’t believe there are any outstanding suspects, the news release said.

Neighbors told FOX 5 a couple lived at the San Marcos home with their grown son, but it wasn’t immediately clear how they may have been connected to the man found in the car.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the woman’s cause of death.