GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Crews in Grand Rapids are investigating after a pickup truck and two box trucks caught fire early Sunday morning.
The fire department responded to a parking lot behind an industrial business plaza off 36th Street at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, after getting a report of a vehicle on fire.
When they arrived on scene, they found three vehicles being consumed by thick smoke and flames: two commercial box trucks and a personal Ford pickup.
Crews were on scene for over an hour working to knock out the fire completely.
Grand Rapids police brought out their forensics team to process the scene. By Monday morning, investigators determined the fires had been set intentionally.
"It is perplexing and, of course, extremely frustrating to me," a business manager in the complex told FOX 17 Monday afternoon. “The people that are brazen enough to go on to private property, but yet still wide out in the in the open, doing what they're doing ... I can't get my arms around it.”
FOX 17 is choosing not to identify the business manager at this time.
The suspected arson took out three trucks belonging to a man who works in commercial transport and is contracted to work through one of the businesses in the plaza.
“And he's asking himself a question. 'Why me? Why did this happen to me?'” the business manager recounted Monday. “It's impacting my business. I've lost capacity while he's adjusting his schedule, and sorting things out on his end.”
The intensity of the fire is evident in the photos taken once it was completely knocked out.
“I’ve spent my whole career in distribution and logistics. I've been part of the safety for several years ... [This was] one of the hottest fires I've ever seen,” the business manager said Monday. “I mean, the frame was barely there. The aluminum on the box itself was completely gone.”
He says a group of car enthusiasts have been holding overnight meetups in their parking lot for about six months now. Specifically, he says, they are "drifting" or "sliding" their vehicles.
There are signs of this activity everywhere in the lot — an endless maze of dark tire tracks going in circles.
Based on videos his office staff has gathered off of social media, the group has held several late night, often rowdy meetings in the lot.
Grand Rapids police confirmed Monday that they were aware of the recent meetups but said they did not have anything to tie them with Sunday morning's fires.
"There have been car meetups in the area in the past but again, at this time, there is no known connection between the car meetups and the vehicles involved," a spokesperson said.
Investigators did recover a stolen vehicle near the location of the suspected arson Sunday.
Again, Grand Rapids police have not linked the stolen vehicle to the fires.
"At this time, there is no indication it is related to this incident," a spokesperson explained.
On Monday, the business manager showed FOX 17 several of the videos his staff had found of suspected meetups in their lot.
Once of the videos shows a car crash into a raised parking strip in the lot, sending debris flying into the air as onlookers moved out of the way.
"I don't know how this person didn't get hit," the business manager said regarding someone near a moving vehicle in one of the videos.
"Had this person gotten hit, now we're talking about bodies."
He is hopeful that this incident over the weekend will be a chance for change.
“I want to engage local government, local law enforcement. ... How can we talk, you know, open up a dialogue with them?”
If you have any information about the fires set early Sunday, you are asked to contact the Grand Rapids Police Department at (616) 456-3400, or you can submit information completely anonymously via Silent Observer at (616) 774-2345.
