By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CLAREMONT, N.H. — The NH State Fire Marshal’s office is investigating a vehicle fire that left a suspected homeless male dead behind a Washington St. trucking facility early Tuesday morning.
According to Deputy Fire Marshal Anthony Booth, a 911 call from a neighbor was made about a fire behind SG Reed Truck Services at 287 Washington Street at 1:49 a.m. Claremont Fire Chief Jim Chamberlain said the report was of an explosion and fire, and upon arrival there were “three to four” tractor trailer units being used for storage that were in flames.
“We implemented our extinguishing operations, had two supply lines in operation, as well as three attack lines,” Chamberlain said. “
Chief Chamberlain said that during the firefighting efforts they found the body inside a box truck.
“Once we discovered a deceased victim, we notified the State Fire Marshal’s office and they come in for their thorough investigation,” he said. “I can tell you that the patient was sent to autopsy this morning and pending results from that.”
Booth said the fire was out by the time he was called about an hour later, and the Fire Marshal’s office took over as a lead in the investigation.
“We have to investigate any time a deceased person is involved,” Booth said. “The suspicion is that it is a transient. We can’t really figure out what they were doing because the fire destroys a lot of things. It could be cooking, or heating or something like that.”
Booth said the fire caused damage to surrounding vehicles that were parked in the area, as well. He said these included a number of trailers that were not being used.
“There was damage to two other trailers,” Booth said. “The back end of a tractor trailer unit.”
He said there were no witnesses except for the reporting party. The cause of the fire is under investigation, and Chamberlain could not confirm that the fire started in the vehicle the body was found.
The Marshal’s Office is awaiting autopsy results before releasing a cause of death. The name and age of the deceased individual has also not been released.
“We are working on confirming the identity of the victim, and hopefully we’ll have that in the next day or two,” Chamberlain said.
Claremont Police Chief Brent Wilmot was unavailable for comment.
Anyone with information to help the investigation is asked to call the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office at 603-223-4289 or email [email protected].
