Highland Fire Chief Peter Miller said a call came in to dispatch at 4:12 p.m. on Saturday, alerting his department to a vehicle fire in progress in front of the Highland Self Storage facility on Route 9W.

A police report states that Jocelyn Love, 22, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was driving a 2015 BMW 328i and it appears the fire was caused by a lit cigar that was mistakenly dropped into a McDonald’s bag that caught fire.

Miller said Love, “pulled into the parking lot of the Highland Self Storage because she knew her car was on fire. It was heavily involved and actually affected a Nissan pickup truck she parked next to also. That had some significant damage.”

The truck, a 2018 Nissan Titan Pickup, is believed to be one used by the property manager of the self storage facility.

Miller said in most cases like this one there is not an explosion.

“What we did have in this case is that there was enough fire that the gas tank failed, because most gas tanks are plastic, and the gas was running on the ground and burning and we had to put that out.”

Miller said his first engine on the scene attacked the fire and knocked it down with water in a matter of minutes.

“There is a fire hydrant right there on the driveway and we ran a line to the hydrant so we had a water supply,” he said. “The flames, at one point in time, were as high as the storage place but they knocked it down relatively quickly and we waited for investigators to come to do an investigation on it.”

No injuries were reported and the Fire Department was assisted by the Lloyd Police Department. Ulster County Cause and Origin Team later arrived on scene to investigate the fire.
Immediately after this event the Highland Fire Department responded to a two car collision at 383 Vineyard Avenue.