Sheriff’s Office truck catches on fire in Sunday cruise control malfunction, report says

A Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office truck is out of commission after firefighters said an electrical malfunction caused it to catch fire as a deputy drove it to Coligny Beach on Sunday.

The incident happened just before 11:30 a.m. on Beach City Road near the Hilton Head Airport, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

The deputy involved had been issued one of the department’s beach patrol pick-up trucks and was assigned to patrol Coligny Beach following airport detail.

As the deputy drove he “noticed a strange sound coming from the engine compartment.”

“I immediately noticed light white smoke entering the cab of the vehicle,” the deputy noted in the report.

The vehicle’s temperature gauge did not indicate that truck was overheating, but the deputy pulled over anyway and turned off the engine.

He looked for a fire extinguisher, but couldn’t find one inside the truck.

When the deputy contacted a sergeant about the smoke, it began to grow and became more “dense.”

At that point, the deputy asked dispatch to call Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue, and firefighters arrived to find black smoke and an engine compartment on the vehicle that had become “fully engulfed,” the report said.

Firefighters put out the flames and no injuries were reported.

An investigator with the fire department said he believed the blaze was likely caused by an electrical malfunction with the truck’s cruise control.

The truck suffered heavy damage to the engine compartment, hood, windshield and interior dash.

After the vehicle was towed, the deputy noted in the report that he was able to find a fire extinguisher in a tool box located in an old cardboard box in the vehicle and didn’t recognize the box because it looked like trash that had been left in the toolbox.

This story was originally published June 5, 2017 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Sheriff’s Office truck catches on fire in Sunday cruise control malfunction, report says."