OAKLAND — A body was found inside the charred wreckage of a car fire in East Oakland on Friday night, authorities said.
The fire damage was so extensive that the grim discovery was not made until later, after police called in a tow truck to remove the vehicle.
A police investigation is underway, with the death being treated as suspicious. Homicide detectives have been assigned to the case, which is protocol and not an indication that foul play has been determined.
The Oakland Fire Department was called at about 10 p.m. Friday for a report of a fully involved car fire in the 2600 block of High Street, near Brookdale Park, fire spokesman Michael Hunt said.
A fire engine dispatched from nearby Station 17 arrived to find a sedan engulfed in flames.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, Hunt said they “had no reason” to suspect a person was inside the vehicle and didn’t see any signs of a body when they called for the car to be towed.
“The condition of the fire would not have made a rescue possible,” Hunt said. “The entire car was consumed by flames.”
It was only when Oakland police officers arrived to oversee the tow that they detected what appeared to be human remains inside the car.
Additional details were not immediately available Saturday. A cause for the fire remains under investigation.
Source: www.mercurynews.com