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Four electric Amazon Prime delivery vans were destroyed in a fire early Monday morning in what Portland Fire & Rescue and the Portland Police Bureau are describing as an arson.
All that remained of the vans after the fire had been extinguished were the shells of the vans’ cabs and some metal bars among piles of ash, according to photos shared by the fire bureau in a Monday press release.
PF&R responded to a potential vegetation fire near the Southwest Portland Rivian dealership after multiple people reported trees on fire in the area, as well as a possible van on fire. There, firefighters found four electric Amazon vans engulfed in flames.
Because the vans’ rechargeable batteries are extremely difficult to extinguish, firefighters had to wait for the batteries to completely consume themselves before extinguishing the fire, city officials said.
“In order for these Lithium-Ion batteries to be completely extinguished, they either must be completely encapsulated by water or the fuel needs to be completely consumed by fire,” the fire bureau said in a statement. “The crews on scene were forced to allow the battery cells to completely consume themselves with fire prior to the fire being completely extinguished.”
While the fumes from the vans are toxic, fire officials said there is “no current danger to anyone in the area.”
Bureau officials say they believe, based on the preliminarily investigation, that the fire was set intentionally.
PF&R did not report any injuries in the incident.
