DCist contributor Andrew Wiseman unearthed an interesting story over at his New Columbia Heights blog yesterday: there’s been a rash of car fires in the neighborhood of late — but according to one person whose brand-new Mini Cooper caught on fire (see right), the fire department is categorizing most of the blazes as “mechanical” fires, rather than arson. An excerpt from the email that Mimi, the owner of the Mini, sent in:

On Sunday, September 26 my new 2010 Mini Cooper burst into flames at around 4:30 a.m.

[…]

Officer Richardson answered our call on Sunday afternoon, when my partner and I first discovered the damage to the car, and tried to help us track down a report number. At first, fire dispatch said there was no record of an incident at that time and location. Several phone calls later, she was able to talk to Investigator Ford at the Fire Investigation Unit who told her that a call was made at 4:47 am and Engine 11 (located at 14th and Newton) responded to the call and put out the fire. Investigator Ford said that he was at the scene at that time and called the fire mechanical, not arson. When pressed, he said that the fire on the 3600 block of 16th Street on August 25th which involved several vehicles was also mechanical.

I cannot accept that the cause of our car being incinerated was “mechanical”. Our car is barely 3 weeks old and had been turned off and parked for roughly 6 hours prior to catching on fire. As I waited for an officer to respond to my call on Sunday afternoon, several community members mentioned cars being set on fire on neighboring streets, Otis, Kenyon, and Monroe in the past few weeks. […] It is ridiculous that none of these incidents are being properly investigated.