OSBORN — A fire official has deemed the case of a burning, empty sport utility vehicle discovered off of Route 9 Friday as “quite suspicious.”
Osborn Fire Chief Allan Shorey said a passer-by reported seeing the parked vehicle about 50 feet off of Route 9 on an old logging road around noon Friday.
When firefighters arrived, Shorey said they found the vehicle “fully engulfed in flames.” He described it as a Ford Escape-type vehicle and said it looked fairly new.
A forest ranger who arrived ahead of firefighters determined that no one was inside the vehicle, and authorities did not see any footprints around the vehicle, either.
The Osborn department was joined at the scene by firefighters from Mariaville, Shorey said. It took them about an hour to fully extinguish the vehicle.
Shorey said Deputy Shane Campbell of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office responded. License plates were still on the vehicle, and they indicated it was owned by someone from the Washington County town of Deblois.
Attempts to contact Campbell Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning were unsuccessful. Chief Deputy Richard Bishop directed questions to Campbell.
Shorey said it is fortunate the fire did not happen in the spring, after the snow melts, because the fire could have spread.
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Steve Fuller
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