Suspicious Car Fire Prompts Arson Investigation in NoMa
A task force composed of members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, D.C. Police and D.C. Fire is looking for the person who allegedly torched a vehicle parked in an alley in NoMa last weekend.
The suspicious car fire happened behind a building on the 200 block of K St. NE last Saturday around 2 a.m., according to D.C. Fire spokesman Doug Buchanan. The vehicle that caught fire was a gray 1989 E350 ambulance.
A security camera pointed at the alley appears to have captured the moment the fire started. In the video, first shared by neighborhood blog PoPville, a hooded man can be seen tampering with a parked vehicle before walking away. The car burst into flames roughly 20 minutes later, the footage shows.
About a half hour later, firefighters showed up and extinguished the blaze.
“The investigation initially led to an undetermined cause,” Buchanan said. “However, after the owner of the vehicle provided video footage of an unknown person setting the auto on fire, the determination was changed to incendiary.”
The torched ambulance reportedly was one used by a local nonprofit:
Old ambulance used by DC #nonprofit Beat Box DC torched in city's NOMA neighborhood @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/lvGireSSPG
— Kristin Wright (@kwrightnbc4) October 18, 2016
D.C. Fire and EMS is urging anyone who has more information about the fire to call its arson tip line at 202-673-2776.
