Sunday, July 11, 2010

Mysterious Truck Fire Near 22nd and 3rd Ave. N. (This Truck Was Truly A "Blazer")

Photo and blog post by John Hoff


About ten o'clock tonight, JNS blog received a telephonic report of a burning vehicle near 4th St. N. and 22nd Ave. N.

The vehicle, as it turned out, was a 2000 model blazer, license plate UHN 068. The truck appeared a total loss, though I thought the tires still looked good and I kind of hoped they wouldn't go to waste. A fire department official who seemed to be an arson investigator was on the scene, taking pictures and poking around. A police officer was willing to state the vehicle was NOT stolen but added, "I don't think we'll ever know what happened, here." No frantic, upset owner was spotted at the scene and individuals from the nearby houses seemed eager to stay inside.

The whole thing is, indeed, rather mysterious. The street where the vehicle blazed up is a dark, isolated corner of the neighborhood where 22nd Ave. N. peters out and becomes 3rd Street North, which runs along the dreary-looking sound barrier between the houses and Interstate 94. It's a perfect place to set fire to a vehicle and get away. The vehicle was about midway between 3rd and 4th, in front of 310 22nd Ave. N. (There is no reason to believe the address is, in any way, connected with the vehicle fire)

(Do not click "Read More")

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This exact same thing happened in this area a couple of years ago. It was quite the site to see.

Johnny Northside! said...

Really? You wouldn't be able to provide a link to an online report about that? Incident number? More information about the vehicle? Everything you know?

General Disarray said...

Could you tell what color the truck was? We had a green blazer parked in in front of our house for 2 days.. Just didn't seem right. We thought it was stolen but it still had its speakers amps ect intact.

M. Clinton said...

I don't think I have ever seen a car on fire in the "fully engulfed stage" Holy Crap- What a sight to see!

Anonymous said...

Here's the link. It was quite a show and stuck to high heaven.

http://www.startribune.com/local/12650366.html

Jeff Skrenes said...

Susan Breedlove would be a good person to ask about what happened a few years ago, but yes, I remember getting phone calls in the Hawthorne office about that incident.

Johnny Northside! said...

Does anybody have a link with the follow up info, like the name of the woman found in the car, whether the crime was ever solved, etc?

Johnny Northside! said...

Your Eyedea:

It seemed to be a very dark green color. Also, we thought we could see a big speaker amp in the back.

General Disarray said...

Hmmmm. I had a bad feeling about that truck... I basically live on "Paper ST" (fight club reference. Google it) so the fact that a car is parked in front of my house for two days makes me wonder...But then again if it wasn't a stolen truck then why were the speakers still in the back still?
When I called 311 they said that it has to be there more then 72 hours...I asked them " but what if it was involved in criminal activity? " They still said 72 hours....

Another thing was that it wasn't locked the whole time it was in front of my house.. I didn't see it leave so I have no idea who left with it..

I need to start listening to my gut more often.

emma. said...

burned out vans was a somewhat regular occurrence when i lived in the pilsen neighborhood in chicago. it's been a while since i've seen one.

Anonymous said...

READ the Strib article.
The body was found in the burnt car on 24th avenue SOUTH. Nowhere near NoMi.

NoMi Passenger said...

Here's the mention in the weekly highlights:

Arson
3XX 22nd Ave N Sunday 7/11/10 2147 hrs 10-205504
MFD responded to a car fire at this location. The vehicle was a 2000 Chevy Blazer & the fire started in the front passenger area. The entire vehicle was gutted by fire, including the dashboard, 2 front seats, rear seat, & cargo area. The windows were broken out by firefighters in order to extinguish the fire. There was no fire damage to the engine area. There was a witness that possibly saw somebody running from the vehicle, but the description was vague. MFD investigation determined the cause of the fire was arson. Estimated damage is $2000.

Anonymous said...

What the hell John. Don't you even research things before going off half cocked? I wonder what other items you've chased on this blog that are based in fiction?

Johnny Northside! said...

Some folks appear to believe there WAS an incident in that spot some time back, though the article link somebody posted was obviously not the correct article.

But, for discussion purposes, I'd still like to know what happened with that OTHER burning vehicle incident.

Unknown said...

Kristine Larson, found dead in burning car (Seward), late 2007, I think.


http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/episodes/index.jsp?bcpid=32546634001&bctid=1731287213

Hopefully that link will work.
If not, try this one:
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=490459

or this one:
http://www.startribune.com/local/18891094.html

Unknown said...

It doesn't appear that the first link (to the "First 48" episode) is working perfectly. When you get to the First 48 website, look for episode #102 entitled "Ashes & Snow."

LEL