Small brush fire leads to burned body

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

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By CARLOS VILLATORO
Register Staff Writer

CalFire fire crews made a grim discovery early Saturday morning as they battled a small brush fire along Mount Veeder Road — a dead body inside a Jeep Wrangler that was parked near the burning brush.

Napa County Sheriff’s Department did not release the victim’s name.

“Foul play is not suspected,” Napa County Sheriff Sgt. Oscar Ortiz said Saturday.

The fire was reported at 12:30 a.m., Saturday, along a remote part of Mount Veeder Road. Volunteer fire crews from the Dry Creek-Lokoya station along with CalFire crews were initially unable to find the blaze.

“We could smell the smoke, but we couldn’t see it off the highway on our first drive through,” CalFire Battalion Chief David Shew said. “It turned out to be in a very narrow driveway that goes into a residence off of Mount Veeder Road. The location of the house was way up above Mount Veeder Road itself.”

After driving through a winding road and reaching the residence, crews began to extinguish about an acre’s worth of burning brush. Once crews got control of the fire, they discovered what was left of a Jeep Wrangler that had been destroyed by flames; inside the Jeep they found the remains of a person.

“It was basically unrecognizable,” said Shew.

Shew said that the cause of the fire is under investigation, but said that he believes the fire from the Jeep caused the surrounding vegetation to catch fire. The Jeep was parked perpendicular to the driveway with the front half of the vehicle on the pavement and the other on the brush Shew said.

No one was inside the home at the time of the fire, but crews discovered a dog inside the house that was not injured. Flames did not reach the structure and no other injuries were reported.

Shew declined to say whether the fire was suspicious in nature, citing an ongoing investigation, but said that one of the key parts of the investigation involves determining if the fire started from the Jeep or from the vegetation.

The lack of wind helped CalFire crews contain the fire to an acre Shew said.

“We are at a pretty severe fire season, so I think everything was in our favor and we dodged another bullet here,” Shew said.

The incident remains under investigation

15 comment(s)

make napa better wrote on Jul 26, 2008 4:54 PM:

" Ok, wait, wait wait!!

“We are at a pretty severe fire season, so I think everything was in our favor and we dodged another bullet here,” Shew said.

You didn't dodge another bullet, there was an unrecognizable DEAD body in there! "

Dwayne wrote on Jul 26, 2008 6:25 PM:

" The dead person in the truck didn't 'dodge' anything..... "

NapaNana wrote on Jul 26, 2008 7:21 PM:

" Soooo....Shew is more worried about a grass fire than a burned up dead body? Seems that the focus should be on the person that lost their life, I too am glad that the fire did not spread, but sheesh! "

elb wrote on Jul 26, 2008 8:49 PM:

" I'm sure the context of Shew's statement, "so I think everything was in our favor and we dodged another bullet here..." was centered around the aspect of how this fire did NOT get out of control, burning thousands of acres as other fires have in the past month or so.

I don't believe Shew's intent was to suggest the loss of someone's life was insignificant.

The author of this story would have done well to preface Shew's statement so that its context was more clear to the reader.

I believe they were merely discussing how lucky we all were that the fire did not get out of control and end up burning several thousands of acres, etc.. That only would have made the tragedy here, even more tragic.

All that being said, I am sorry to hear that someone has died what appears to be a rather horrific death. "

Baraki wrote on Jul 26, 2008 10:28 PM:

" I agree with elb --

Also, I know the Register gets this info from official press releases -- why not adopt a policy of putting a link to the original press release (usually on an official website anyway) so people can look into it more? "

comment wrote on Jul 26, 2008 11:13 PM:

" A fire started around someone who was found dead in their vehicle and foul play is not suspected? Maybe we didn't get all the facts, but it sounds suspicious to me. "

justnana wrote on Jul 26, 2008 11:57 PM:

" Suspicious certainly...and I believe that we do not have all the facts. NVR , please don't forget to follow up on this one for us! Kudos to the Volunteer Crews and CalFire for keeping this from becoming even more tragic. "

skiph wrote on Jul 27, 2008 2:43 AM:

" I'm happy Mt. Veeder didn't end up burning up and taking the many houses up there with it. It's unfortunate someone was in the Jeep. In the overall scope of things...there could have been more deaths caused by a middle of the night inferno if the conditions weren't right. "

Drandor wrote on Jul 27, 2008 7:56 AM:

" I live on Mount Veeder and on Oakville Road on the steep section of road overlooking the valley there is a small burnt areaon the mountain side of the road. It has a burned up wheel and tire that looks like from a jeep or SUV on the side of the road. I had also noticed a black garbage bag several hundred feet up the road. And crows were gathered around a dark spot on a wide gravel section on the side of the road. My first thought was it looked like a dried pool of blood. But I thought couldn't be anything like that, so I kept on driving. Now I wonder,...Going to check it out. And today I didn't see that garbage bag. Maybe the police took it for evidence. I'm sure the police would've seen it and checked it out. Also where that fire was is often a place where people park, to walk in the hills or make out, etc. "

glenroy wrote on Jul 27, 2008 9:05 AM:

" Who cares about the brush fire.... some family and friends are hurting this morning…or will be soon. "

mafi wrote on Jul 27, 2008 10:21 AM:

" Drandor, I hope you contact the pd, just in case. Hopefullly they didn't miss the 'crow' spot, but w/ so few homicides to investigate(luckily) things can be missed. Thanks for your post! "

tribal1 wrote on Jul 27, 2008 10:27 AM:

" OMG Drander that is so scary... I hope it was picked up by the police to be investigated. i would be scared to stop and look at it myself in fear that it could be something bad ..... yikes.....i hope we dont have a want to be ZODIAC around these parts..... "

mamyt wrote on Jul 27, 2008 11:53 AM:

" Foul play is not suspected??

What has to happen around here for some one to suspect foul play? Remember the guy who got hit with the fork lift and then found in a pick up truck a few vineyards over? That was not considered foul play either. "

NUHS67 wrote on Jul 27, 2008 12:00 PM:

" elb is completely right. Chief David Shew's peers are usually viewed as heroes. Why anyone doesn't treat them that way should hope their home never is involved in a fire. Ignorance would be the only reason a person would think that Shew is an uncaring person . The loss of life is always sad. A fire limited to one acre this time of year is as any one knows a very very good thing "

wowquebonita wrote on Jul 27, 2008 5:22 PM:

" Ahhh a woman working this story called several times...she was sooooooo annoying her accent made it very difficult to understand her! I find it hard to believe that a reporter or anyone involved in the media doesn't know the famous winery owner that lives in that area. "

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