Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

DELIBERATELY GUTTED – A gasoline fire destroyed this car this morning on Jarvis Street.

Suspicious blaze ‘concerning,’ declares fire platoon chief

A car was destroyed in an early-morning fire downtown.

By Rhiannon Russell on September 18, 2014

A car was destroyed in an early-morning fire downtown.

Whitehorse Fire Department platoon chief Don McKnight said the fire was likely set intentionally.

Whitehorse RCMP Const. Dean Hoogland also called the fire suspicious.

“Vehicle fires don’t just start by themselves, generally,” McKnight told the Star.

“So if it was set deliberately, it’s concerning that people are damaging people’s property and putting people’s lives at risk.”

The car was parked on Jarvis Street outside a house. By the time fire crews responded at 3:20 a.m., five minutes after the call came in, it was engulfed in flames.

The vehicle’s gas tank had been compromised, McKnight said.

“We did have a flowing gasoline fire that we extinguished with our dry-chemical extinguisher in combination with water.”

Five fire personnel were on the scene, along with a pumper and rescue truck from the department downtown, and a ladder truck from the Takhini firehall.

The fire was contained to the car – although a trailer was parked just six feet away – and extinguished in 10 minutes.

The cause of the blaze isn’t yet known, McKnight said. It’s still under investigation.

Hoogland said a truck parked behind the trailer had been rummaged through.

The passenger’s side door was open, as was the glove box. There was no damage.

This truck belongs to the same people who own the Nissan, Hoogland said.

“We’re not sure if that’s connected to the vehicle fire, but we are investigating all the avenues there,” he said.

Police are making neighbourhood inquiries today to see if anyone saw anything suspicious.

Comments (1)

Up 12 Down 29

Josey Wales on Sep 18, 2014 at 3:38 pm

Hmm...criminal scumbags performing their craft in our downtown core?
Who knew this was a issue, well I mean besides everyone...who knew?
It almost seems ( I know I'm crazy) that pro active patrols may be a needed thing in our wee sty that clearly has devolved into a Winnipeg or Regina type of town.

Police seem not to be very interested in doing it, maybe we should do it ourself?
Maybe it is time we had our own Guardian Angels chapter before this wee town gets further infected with criminal scumbags?

Oh yeah, lots of vehicles start fires on their own, ford pick ups have during the 80's
Gm has a few models that have too.

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