2 Dracut Police Cruisers Destroyed In Suspicious Fire At Station

DRACUT (CBS) – Two Dracut Police cruisers were destroyed in a suspicious fire in the station's parking lot. A woman who police consider a person of interest was taken to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation.

Police said officers were responding to "multiple emergency calls" around 9 p.m. Wednesday when a shift supervisor received a call about a fire in the back parking lot of the police station.

When they went outside, officers found one marked cruiser completely engulfed in flames. Firefighters put it out, but the heat from the fire also destroyed another marked cruiser parked next to it.

No one was hurt.  Police Chief Peter Bartlett says there will be no disruption to their patrols because neither SUV was a "front line cruiser." One was a reserve and the other was for the school resource officer.

Investigators have a person of interest in the case, a woman who was found in the station's vestibule after the fire.

She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance to "undergo an evaluation," police said. Her name has not been released.

"We are extremely sensitive to the mental health component that appears to be part of this investigation," Bartlett told reporters Thursday.

In:
• Dracut News