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Faulty wiring believe to have caused car fire

A newer model Ford Mustang caught on fire behind the court building Tuesday afternoon
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A red Ford Mustang parked behind the Campbell River Law Courts caught on fire Tuesday afternoon. Fire broke out under the hood of the vehicle nearly 10 minutes after the female driver had parked the car.

Faulty wiring may be to blame for a car fire behind the Campbell River Law Courts earlier this week.

A 2006 red Ford Mustang burst into flames around 1:51 p.m. on Tuesday in the back parking lot of the court building.

Spry said when four firefighters arrived on scene at 1:54 p.m., the car was fully involved and it took fire crews about 5-10 minutes to put out the fire.

“It looks like it was in the engine compartment,” Spry said. “There was some damage done inside the passenger compartment.”

Spry said the Mustang belonged to a female juror, who had parked the car roughly 10 minutes before the fire broke out. He said no official cause has been determined, but speculates the fire could be connected to the car’s wiring.

“Usually with car fires it’s a little bit harder to determine the cause because it’s usually damaged pretty bad by the time we get there,” Spry said.

“They (firefighters on the scene) were interested in some wiring that went into a computer control module.

“Usually there’s not too much to cause a fire in a car unless it’s set or there’s cigarettes in the compartment.  But usually when the fire starts in the engine compartment, it’s electrical. And this was definitely in the engine,” Spry said.