A vehicle fire occurred late afternoon on Monday, January 20, in a parking lot at the west end of Portage la Prairie.
House fires have been occurring around the region due to furnaces overheating and similar causes. The car fire might make some wonder if something similar happens with vehicles that cause them to combust due to overheating.
The extreme cold weather can be a reason of some vehicle fires but that would be mostly due to faulty block heater cords being used, not the weather directly. There really isn't much where the cold directly can make vehicles susceptible to fires. Firefighter Seth Scarrett of the Portage Fire Department noted the weather was not a factor for this particular vehicle fire at all. He adds such fires occur randomly for reasons that usually have nothing to do with recent frigid conditions.