First responders say that two people died in separate car fires in East Anchorage less than 12 hours apart over the weekend.
Police and fire officials said that neither person had been named as of Monday afternoon because their families had not been told.
The first fire happened Saturday night in the 4600 block of Klondike Court, which is north of Russian Jack Park. The fire was reported to the Anchorage Fire Department at 6:09 p.m.
“The unit arrived at the scene at 6:11 p.m., just two minutes later, to find a single car on fire,” the department said in a statement.
Firefighters put out the fire and found the person inside the car. The department says that an initial review and talks with witnesses showed that the fire was probably caused by smoking materials that were thrown away in the wrong way.
Monday, AFD Assistant Chief Alex Boyd said that the car was stopped when the fire started.
“The owner of the car lives in one of the nearby homes, and it was being used more as a shed or a place to stay out of the weather,” Boyd said.
Boyd said that there are no signs of foul play in the death. He said that lab tests are being done to find out more about how and why the fire started.
The second car fire started early Sunday morning.
At 5:02 a.m., an iPhone automatically sent a message to Anchorage police that the phone’s owner had been in a crash. They were able to track the phone to a place outside of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, near the Fort Richardson exit on the Glenn Highway.
Police said in a statement, “At 5:05 a.m., JBER Fire and Police responded to a fire in the trees near Richardson Frontage Road and found a single vehicle off the road completely engulfed in flames.” “APD officers went to the scene of the crime. The only person in the car was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Renee Oistad, a police spokesman, said Monday morning that she didn’t have any more information about the crash right away.
