Around 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 19 a loud boom was heard coming from the student parking lot area at Rio Hondo College. At first, the sound could be mistaken for a loud gunshot or a car crash, but upon further inspection, it was neither of those. It was a parked BMW X 5 that had caught flames in student parking lot 5.

The El Paisano News team was some of the first ones on the scene, even before school security had arrived. The car was covered in flames and black smoke reaching an incredible height.

It didn’t take long for the security staff to clear out all of the students hanging out near the fire, to catch a glimpse of what had happened.

It was in a matter of minutes that the proper authorities were related to this incident. The Basset fire department was the first on the scene.

Acting on a moments notice, they quickly sprung into action to combat this fire, and stop the smoke. It didn’t take them long at all to put the fire out, but when the fire was completely dead the car was burnt beyond repair.

When asked about the origins of the fire, one firefighter said “it’s currently under investigation and we can not talk about it.”

Upon further investigation we found out by local authorities that the car had been stolen. We do not know who the car had belonged to prior to the theft, nor who stole it. We do know that someone had stolen it and left it in student parking lot 5 at Rio Hondo.

It’s also important to add the that the authorities don’t believe anything was done to make the car catch flames. They believe it was wear and tear that made the BMW X5 catch fire.

In November of 2017, ABC News reported that BMW had recalled about a million vehicles because of fire risks. BMW X5 models from years 2007-2011 were part of the list.

For more about the fire, check out the gallery below and be sure to follow us on Instagram: @ElPaiMedia and Twitter: @ElPaisanoNews.

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