RCMP are trying to find the owner of a pickup truck that burst into flames Monday night.
At about 9:30 p.m. on June 29 Merritt Fire Rescue Department (MFRD) and Merritt RCMP responded to a call of a Cheverolet pickup truck burning in an alley of the 2500 block of Jackson Avenue.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames fairly quickly, dousing them and nearby fences, MFRD fire prevention officer Sky McKeown said.
The area has homes surrounding it and some quick-thinking residents soaked their fences when the fire broke out, McKeown said.
Whoever was driving the vehicle at the time abandoned it in the middle of the alley.
McKeown said the fire started in the cab of the vehicle and the engine compartment was left intact.
“The area of origin would be the interior of the pickup and quite possibly the dash[board] area,” McKeown said.
He said no incendiary devices were found upon initial inspection of the vehicle.
“It doesn’t make sense. There’s a lot of things about [the fire] that just don’t make sense,” McKeown said. “If someone’s going to torch the vehicle, it’s not 9:30 p.m. at night in a highly populated back alley. If someone was driving down an alley and their vehicle caught on fire — because of wiring or whatever — they usually stay with the vehicle.”
Witnesses to the fire said the vehicle had driven down the alley and a few minutes later it was ablaze, McKeown said.
There have been three suspicious fires in Merritt in the month of June. An uninhabited trailer in the Diamond Vale area, an uninhabited barn behind a trailer park in Collettville and four commercial trucks all caught fire under suspicious circumstances last month.
Police don’t know if this particular fire was set purposely or accidentally, Staff Sgt. Sheila White told the Herald.
Anyone with any information about this fire is asked to call the Merritt RCMP at 250-378-4262 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
