Police cruiser ignites, leaving officials baffled

Monday, October 13, 2008
Jersey Journal

Jersey City police and fire officials were at a loss yesterday to explain what caused a police cruiser at Eighth and Coles streets to go up in flames Saturday.

Two police officers were in the car when a fire broke out in the car's trunk around 3 p.m., said Police Lt. Edgar Martinez.

The police officers got out of the car, and one of them was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene, Martinez said.

Fire Director Armando Roman said Engine Co. 6 and Ladder 2, as well as the department's arson unit, responded to the scene at 3:13 p.m. and the fire was put out by 3:47 p.m. The cause of the fire is being investigated, he said.

Thank god the cop got out ok, Crown Vics have a notorious record when it come to fires.

Quote:

I walked past it at about 3:15/3:30 ish with the fire dept was still on scene.

The cops were there on a burglary call. One cop saw a guy busting into cars, called for backup. The burned car was the backup. Officer smelled the smoke, parked it in a "safe" place with a wide sidewalk away from other cars, got out, chased the burglar down & caught him.


They think it was started by some of the computer equipment in the trunk.

As for the water- JCFD showed up & doused the fire. They closed up the fire hydrants. Apparently sometimes when they do that, the pressure spikes in the pipes. At that particular intersection, the pipes are pretty old, and one burst due to that pressure.

Anyway, that's what I heard.


And for those who didn't see it- if there aren't more pictures forthcoming (and I bet there will be- there was a young guy there with a pretty professional looking rig) I'll try to get some up if I get a minute.

It was pretty crazy how fast the car went up- Saw it go from just a few flames to fully involved in not much time at all. When the firefighters showed up, stuff started popping (hesitate to call it exploding) shooting bursts of sparks out of the car...bigger than sparks, really. They just got in there & put her out. Once they got the trunk open & soaked, you could pretty much see right through the car. Totally trashed.


United Water was out tearing up the street late last night. Guys that run Christo's must be like, "WTF kind of day is this?"

GWB

I got home at 5:30 this evening and the street was flooded. Our water has been turned off and there has been jack hammering all evening. They sucked up all the water and now there are like 7 or 8 guys standing around chatting instead of getting my water turned back on! I am assuming the flooding was related to the explosion earlier. What a weird day in Hamilton Park.

HOLY MFER

What time was this? I could have seen that ish from my window if I had not been taking a nap all afternoon.

Excuse the phone quality. Nobody was hurt. Now with more fireball!

I was walking by when I heard the loud bangs and then saw the squad car ablaze. No one there seemed to have much info on what happened, but an officer was speaking with someone about taking a statement. No ambulance came, so I'm assuming no one was hurt. Crossing my fingers for that to be true.

I heard a couple of loud bangs, a horn going off, and saw some police lights outside my door. I went out to investigate and there was the remains of a completely burned up JC PD cruiser, right in front of McNair. There were some other people with better cameras there, maybe they can post some better photos.