The unoccupied home of an interracial couple in Sterling, Ohio, exploded early Wednesday morning, and officials found a misshapen swastika and a misspelled anti-black slur painted on their garage.

The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime by the local police, the F.B.I. and other agencies, according to Capt. Doug Hunter of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

The explosion was reported by a neighbor around 12:40 a.m. on Wednesday. The couple had been staying at a hotel nearby as they renovated their home after an electrical fire on July 3.

“The entire house was engulfed,” Captain Hunter said.

The couple’s home in rural Sterling , about 25 miles southwest of Akron, Ohio, was the last house on a dead-end street, Captain Hunter said. A neighbor’s garage and vehicles had also been spray-painted, but there were no discernible words on them, he said, adding that the authorities were not aware of any security cameras that might have caught the vandalism.