THE CLEVELAND, OHIO, FIRE CHIEF WANTS TO KNOW how and why and engine company put out a car fire early Saturday morning, then left without discovering the dead body that was inside.
The call was dispatched around 4 am for the auto that was burning in the driveway of a vacant house. After extinguishing the fire, the fire officer called dispatch to have the police tow the burned-out hulk away, a low-priority assignment. When the tow crew arrived four hours later, they discovered the charred remains inside the car.
The crime scene after the blinding steam had dissipated.
(WEWS-TV image)
The medical examiner later determined that the victim had been shot in the neck and had died before the fire was set. The Cleveland Plain Dealer continues:
The fire department officials will try to determine if protocols should be changed to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s events. Spokesman Larry Gray said there is no written policy that tells firefighters to look into a vehicle after a fire is extinguished, but that is something firefighters are expected to do.
Officials don’t know why it was not done when the 1997 Ford Blazer [sic] was found burning behind a vacant house on Ovington Avenue.
“I’m not making excuses, the whole thing will be investigated,” Gray said. “But it was very dark, there were a lot of trees there. Car fires present certain hazards, like heat and steam. There could be a hundred reasons why they didn’t look into the car.”
WEWS-TV filed this video report:
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