BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — A police officer was involved in a shooting at a home in New Hampshire just before a fire and explosion destroyed the house Monday afternoon, authorities said.

State police told numerous media outlets that the shooting involved a police officer, but the condition of the officer was unclear Monday after the shooting and explosion in a suburban duplex home in a 55-and-up community in Brentwood shortly after 4 p.m.

Debra Vasapolli, director of public relations at Exeter Hospital, said that one person was taken to the hospital but said that person was not the victim of a gunshot wound. She declined to provide more details.

Neighbor Wayne Hughes told the Portsmouth Press-Herald that police responded to the house after neighbors heard an argument Monday afternoon and called 911. His wife, Susan, said that she saw a police officer arrive at the home and then heard "rapid gun fire."

She said she saw Walter Nolan, 86, being taken from the scene by ambulance before she was evacuated from the area. Public records indicate the house is owned by Nolan and he apparently lived in the home with his son, Mike.

After the blaze started around 4 p.m., firefighters were kept away from the scene.

Aerial coverage from WMUR-TV (http://bit.ly/RAYnZq) shows flames burning through the roof of the house and an explosion punching out the front of the house shortly after 5:30 p.m. Within minutes of the explosion, the house was engulfed in flames as black smoke billowed over the neighborhood.

After firefighters started attacking the blaze around 6 p.m., the fire was largely knocked down about a half hour later and it didn't appear to have spread to neighboring houses.

Calls to the Rockingham County sheriff's office and state police were not immediately returned. A spokesman for the state attorney general's office said he didn't have any updated information.