PORT ANGELES — Tabatha Rhinehart is trying to make light of the burned car that sits in front of her house, but it’s not easy.
The 1990 Chevrolet Lumina that was her husband’s only mode of transportation to a job in Port Townsend is now just a shell, with metal frames where there were once padded seats and melted material that once formed the dashboard.
On Wednesday night, the Rhineharts watched their car burn in front of their East Second Street house, the fourth in a string of suspicious car fires in the neighborhood.
“I’m just so angry, I guess is most of it,” Rhinehart said Thursday afternoon, standing on her front porch with her daughter, Kayla, 10, as passers-by craned their necks to look at the blackened vehicle out front.
Investigative leads
No one has been arrested for the fires, but authorities say they are following some leads.
“We’re going to catch this person,” Police Chief Tom Riepe vowed Thursday.
“I’m thankful nobody’s hurt, but it’s very, very serious, a very serious crime. We’re going to aggressively investigate it.”
The Chevrolet is the third car to burn in eight days within about a four-block area of central Port Angeles, and another similar fire burned a vehicle in the same neighborhood Feb. 10.
On March 23, a pickup truck caught fire in the 200 block of South Albert Street about 30 minutes before a car went up in flames across Jessie Webster Park, in the 700 block of East Third Street.
The February car fire occurred in the same block, just one street over from the Rhineharts’ house.
—
Anyone who has information about the recent fires or sees something suspicious is asked to call police at 360-452-4545 or North Olympic Crime Stoppers at 1-888-242-4442.
