AMHERST — Two cars parked at an Amherst apartment complex were destroyed after catching fire in the early morning hours on Memorial Day, according to Amherst Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren.
Firefighters responded at 1:19 a.m. Monday to a box alarm, summoning both on-duty and off-duty units, to Olympia Oaks, the apartment complex off Olympia Drive.
Stromgren said the original 911 call had suggested the fire was getting close to a dwelling unit, prompting the box alarm, though the building was not at risk. Firefighters from one engine quickly extinguished the cars, but not before both were totaled, Stromgren said.
No cause for this fire has yet been identified. The fire started at an unusual time of day when neither car had likely been operating, he said. A state police investigator assigned to the state Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating, though no results have come back yet.
The incident came before Amherst dispatched an ambulance, at 4:05 a.m., to Granby to assist with a multi-alarm fire at a home.
Due to this latest incident at Olympia Oaks, along with one duplex being heavily damaged after an e-bike’s ion lithium battery caught on fire last September and the proximity to the Olympia Place apartment building that was destroyed by fire last November, Stromgren said Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service will be among those doing outreach to calm concerned residents.
Meanwhile, Stromgren said the state fire marshal is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire at the construction site next to Olympia Place, which spread to the occupied building. That has remained undetermined so far.
