Beamer Burnout

Oakland University Police Dispatch received a call from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, Jan. 7 that a caller had reported a black BMW parked in P36 was smoking and possibly on fire. Two officers and the Auburn Hills Fire Department (AHFD) responded to the call.

Upon arrival, the officers observed the vehicle to have a large amount of smoke coming form the front and flames began to come from the bottom of the BMW. They asked all pedestrians within the area to leave the scene and confirmed no one was in the burning vehicle.

While on the scene, the driver of the GMC that was parked next to the BMW came out from the Engineering Center to inquire about his vehicle. He observed that the driver side of the GMC began to ignite shortly after he arrived on scene. He expressed that he had valuable items in his truck that he wanted to retrieve, but the officers advised him to remain at a safe distance until AHFD cleared the fire.

AHFD then arrived on scene and began extinguishing both cars that were on fire. During this time, the owner of the BMW came out of class and realized that it was his car that had ignited and caused damage to the GMC parked next to his car. 

In an interview with the owner of the BMW, the officers asked if he had left anything running in his vehicle or if he smoked any substance in his vehicle. The owner said no to both questions. They then asked him if his car had an automatic start function that could have malfunctioned. He also said no to that.

After putting out the fire, AHFD analyzed the inside of the BMW and came to the conclusion it was an accidental fire caused by a battery issue inside the BMW. The two cars were towed and the scene was cleared.