Fire near Tacoma Mall eviscerates pickup truck, burns 400 square feet of nearby hillside

A fire near the Tacoma Mall area spread from a pickup truck to a nearby brush Tuesday afternoon, burning hundreds of square feet of the hillside landscape.

The call was first reported to the Tacoma Fire Department around 3 p.m, according to department spokesperson Joe Meinecke. Lincoln Correa, the responding unit’s battalion chief, told the newspaper that the flames originated at a car parked near the 3300 block of Center Street and spread to the hillside adjacent to the road.

The fire traveled both up the hill and west. Correa estimated it burned around 400 square feet of land, but firefighters contained it before it reached nearby apartments. No people were injured by the incident, but the truck was totaled by the flames. While at the scene, Correa did not know what caused it to ignite.

The Center Street block near the fire was blocked off until around 4:30 p.m., according to Correa. For firefighters to extinguish flames that spread to a nearby electrical pole, operators needed to temporarily turn off power in that area. Power was expected to return by 5 p.m.

This story was originally published August 23, 2022 at 5:05 PM.