Curious Car Fire has Camper wondering

This Dodge Challenger ended up off the side of the road and on fire in Southwest Wasco County on Friday, June 24 at around 8:45 p.m. Campers reported seeing a male walking away from the vehicle after it caught fire and fireworks inside it were going off.

By Tom Peterson

David Clawson was camping with his family in southwest Wasco County on Friday night, June 24, when it appeared someone had pulled over on a road above him and started a small fire.

“Basically I started hearing what sounded like a couple of gunshots and then we saw fireworks, both of which are illegal,” he said.

“The fire got substantially larger, and I told my wife to grab the kids in case we needed to get out of there.” 

The family was camping next to Clear Lake, which is about 18 miles south of Mount Hood in the National Forest in Wasco County. 

“Me and the guy next door grabbed our shovels and went up the hill 150 yards. We could tell fireworks were going off, about 50 of them. And when we got to the top of the hill, we saw it was a car that had gone off the road and was on fire and the flames were  shooting up a tree and catching it on fire.”

Clawson said fireworks were going off inside the vehicle and shooting out of the vehicle.

“It looked to be a Dodge Challenger,” he said. “We couldn’t touch it with a shovel.”   

The car fire sent flames shooting into the tree above before the blaze diminished on its own near Clear Lake. Authorities put out the remaining fire with an extinguisher about 45 minutes later.

The fire was reported to Wasco County 911 at about 9 p.m., according to the Sheriff’s log. 

Clawson, 42, of Portland, said they stood by the fire for 15 minutes and the flames started to subside. 

He said an officer showed up at about 9:30 p.m. and extinguished the blaze with a fire extinguisher.

A deputy was able to get the license plate number BNV1040 which was registered to a person in Vancouver, Washington, according to the Sheriff’s log. It was also noted that the vehicle identification number had melted.

Clawson said a camper later told him he ran into a man walking down the forest service road about a half-mile from the fire. The man appeared to be intoxicated “tore up” and was mumbling about the car being on fire.

The Clear Lake campground host also reported that a camper informed them a Challenger had driven off the side of the road and was on fire, and a male was walking away from it. 

“What happened,” Clawson asked of the follow-up investigation. “I am dying to find out.”

A tow company out of Boring, Oregon, removed the vehicle later that weekend.

It is unclear if any arrest was made or how or if the situation was resolved. 

CCCNews has requested additional information about the incident from the Wasco County Sheriff’s office through an information request.