Photo by ep_jhu.

While it’s still not known what—or who—exactly caused a few area ambulances to catch fire, a recent investigation by the local fire union found equally troublesome problems: Many D.C. area ambulances had undergone repairs and maintenance using some “unorthodox” materials, including “No Parking” signs and mudflaps.

But now, we can put that particular case to rest. Maybe. The Washington City Paper reports that Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Paul Quander said that mechanics at the Department of Public Works were responsible for the bizarre repairs. “I think they were trying to be creative,” Quander told WCP.

But why was the Department of Public Works doing ambulance repairs? Well, “the ambulances were originally sent to the Department of Public Works and DC Water during the July heat wave,” WCP reports, “because the fire department’s own maintenance crews couldn’t repair enough of them properly.”

DCist reached out to the fire union for confirmation, but wasn’t given a definitive answer. Dabney Hudson, second vice president of the union, told us that, “It would be egregious of me to comment on which agency actually placed the mud flaps and ‘No Parking’ signs in the vehicles.” According to Hudson, “outside of our members dropping them off at a Fire Department Repair Facility, we really don’t know where the vehicles are going or what’s done.”

It’s also still unknown if these “unorthodox repairs” are responsible for the recent string of ambulance fires, but Hudson says it certainly raises some eyebrows: “What I can say is that it’s troubling when any type of repair [is] made outside of the manufacturer recommended practices. It definitely calls into question the legitimacy of the repair and the condition of the vehicle.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Works referred DCist’s request for comment to Fire and EMS chief Kenneth Ellerbe. A representative from Fire and EMS was not immediately available to comment.