A BMW owner woke up to an unwelcome sight on a rainy Sunday morning: his convertible was outside, and it was completely engulfed in flames.
The fire broke out shortly before 6:30 a.m. Sept. 6 on Fuller Avenue near Fountain Avenue, just east of the West Hollywood city line. The Los Angeles Fire Department received the call at 6:29 a.m., spokesperson Jennifer Middleton told WEHOonline. Crews arrived at 6:35 a.m. and wrapped up the response at 7:11 a.m.
No injuries were reported, and no ambulance transport was listed with the call. By the time firefighters were finished, the blue BMW convertible had been gutted by the blaze.
How it started was less obvious. Owner Mick Krause told WeHo Times that his Ring camera caught the beginning of the fire and appeared to rule out one theory circulating online: someone walking up and deliberately setting the BMW ablaze. “No one lit my car,” Krause said.
No One There
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The Ring footage became more useful after the BMW’s sudden combustion attracted speculation about what — or who — might have started it.
Krause told WeHo Times the fire appeared to begin on its own. In the footage shown in a KTLA 5 News report, no person can be seen approaching the parked BMW immediately before flames begin appearing around it.
Krause told KTLA that he initially thought his roommates were playing a prank when they yelled that his car was on fire. He ran outside as firefighters arrived and found the BMW already engulfed.
His concern quickly moved beyond the car. Krause said he worried about whether someone had been hurt and whether the flames would spread to other vehicles. Firefighters knocked the blaze down without any reported injuries or damage to neighboring cars.
Rain Check
An official cause has not been determined.
Krause told KTLA that firefighters gave him a working theory: an electrical problem related to the rain, possibly involving the fact that the convertible’s top had been left down.
He wasn’t entirely convinced.
Krause said his BMW had previously been left with its top down in the rain without catching fire, leaving him unsure whether an electrical failure really explained what happened.
That distinction leaves the unusual sequence largely where the Ring footage found it. There is no official determination that rain or an electrical malfunction caused the fire, while the video does not appear to show anyone approaching the BMW before it ignited.
The car was towed away the following day, Krause told KTLA, leaving ash and debris behind where the convertible had been parked.