A vehicle fire broke out Tuesday afternoon in a parking lot behind 15 East Main Street in downtown Westminster, according to Kevin Dayhoff, the Westminster Fire Department Public Information Officer.
Central Command, the county's emergency dispatch center, alerted Westminster firefighters to the fire at 2:50 p.m., and it was out by 3:05 p.m., Dayhoff said. Two pieces of fire suppression equipment and six personnel responded, along with the Westminster Police Department and Westminster Public Works, according to Dayhoff.
Dayhoff said the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal ruled the fire accidental, estimated total damage at $55,000, and found that a 2021 Forester was in motion when smoke was observed coming from its engine compartment. Five vehicles were involved, and no electric vehicles were part of the fire, Dayhoff said. No injuries were reported, including among firefighters, he added.
"A white SUV was loaded onto a flatbed tow truck after a car fire Tuesday in a downtown Westminster parking lot.
Matt Boden, who said he was working inside an office when he and others noticed black smoke outside, gave Westminster Wire an eyewitness account of the fire. Boden said he walked to the door and saw smoke coming from a white SUV, with a small fire burning under the hood. He said police arrived and blocked off the area as the smoke turned into a small fire, and that the flames then grew and spread to a black SUV parked in front of the white SUV where the fire started.
Boden initially described "a small burst explosion" at that point. Asked by Westminster Wire to clarify, he said the sound came from the SUV's hood popping open. "It was a mild burst. I wouldn't call it an explosion either," Boden said, aligning his account with a text reply Westminster Wire received from Westminster Common Council President Tony Chiavacci that no explosion occurred.
The fire department arrived within minutes of when Boden first noticed the smoke, he said, and put the flame out within seconds using a hose before dousing the engine to cool it down and lifting the hood to soak it further, consistent with the roughly 15 minutes Dayhoff described between dispatch and the fire being out.
The aftermath of Tuesday's car fire in a downtown Westminster parking lot behind 15 East Main Street.
The Westminster Fire Department also said in a Facebook post that four of its volunteer members responded, along with two personnel from the Carroll County Department of Fire and EMS, which is consistent with the numbers provided by Dayhoff.
Boden said two women were pacing back and forth and talking on the phone near the vehicle when the smoke started. He said he assumed the women had called 911 and that one of them might have owned one of the vehicles. Police asked the women to move to the nearby Westminster Exchange building, according to Boden.
Boden described damage to two of the other vehicles involved: a Honda CR-V parked to the left had melted damage on the back driver's side, near where the white SUV's hood was, and a vehicle parked on the other side of the white SUV had bubbling paint and melted taillights. Boden said the three most heavily damaged vehicles were towed away on a flatbed and that police maintained a perimeter from their arrival until the investigation concluded.
Featured photo: Courtesy of Matt Boden