Fire Marshal suspects no foul play in Jeep fire

OSBURN – The fire that engulfed a Lucky Friday electrician’s 2007 Jeep Wrangler Tuesday night has been ruled “accidental” following a joint investigation by the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office, Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and Shoshone County Fire District No. 1.

Region 1 Fire Marshal Jason Blubaum inspected the wreckage of the vehicle with personnel from SCFD No. 1 and SCSO Wednesday morning at the County Depot in Osburn. Following this inspection and an investigation into the vehicle’s recent maintenance history; Marshal Blubaum, SCFD No.1 Chief Aaron Cagle and Sheriff Mike Gunderson are in agreement that “the official result was accidental- mechanical.”

More specifically, Blubaum explained that “it looks like we had an exhaust leak that melted rubber and caught it on fire as he was driving.”

The owner of the Jeep, Richard Summers, was driving home to Kellogg from Wallace around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night when it burst into flames. Fire crews from SCFD No.1 responded to the scene just east of the Osburn Interstate-90 exit and found the fully engulfed Jeep in the right westbound lane. Summers was found standing next to the burning vehicle uninjured.

Taking from the Marshal’s report, Chief Cagle stated that earlier in the day, Summers had taken the Jeep in for some maintenance in Kellogg.

“He had some work done at Dave Smith where they pulled the gas tank down, they replaced O2 sensors, they replaced spark plug wires, all this stuff- but nothing significant there.”

The real problem, they suspect, was the warning given by Dave Smith to Summers that he seems to have ignored.

“We went and talked to Dave Smith, then we got a big fat report and audio recordings of them (the Dave Smith mechanics) telling him (Summers), ‘look, you’ve got an exhaust leak at your manifold.’ So right where the exhaust comes out of that motor. Instead of going into his exhaust, it was leaking out all over his fuel lines and his spark plug wires and it had melted everything.”

The Dave Smith report showed that they replaced the damaged wires and spark plugs, and warned that he needed to fix the leak– a warning he ignored multiple times.

Summers left Dave Smith between 3 and 4 p.m., then went and had dinner in Wallace from 7 to 10 p.m.

Contrary to what Summers told the News-Press in an interview on Wednesday when he said that he keeps up on regular maintenance, the joint investigation showed that the Jeep (which had 285,225 miles on it) had seen better days and was not well maintained.

“It was not in the greatest mechanical condition,” Cagle said. “It may have looked pretty, but as far as his maintenance upkeep, it was really lacking.”

Blubaum added that “unless you are looking at your rig all the time, you’re not going to catch a manifold leak.”

With this new information, Sheriff Gunderson says that his office does not plan to continue to investigate the matter further, unless new information is brought to light.

“Being that we got the information from the Fire Marshal, there really is no reason to suspect foul play or a conspiracy because the investigation clearly showed that it was a mechanical failure,” he said.

“There was mechanical issues and he chose not to repair them.”

Suspicions regarding the cause of the fire arose due to the alleged issues that Summers and members of the United Steel Workers Union Local 5114 have had since he started working for the Lucky Friday Mine in July.

The USW 5114 Facebook page called out Summers and his Jeep multiple times over the past two week in posts.

“SCAB OF THE WEEK!!!!” the first Aug. 12 post read, “This SCAB claims that he is THE electrician at the Lucky Friday and there’s nothing anyone can do about it!! Yes, this jeep is his pride and joy!!!”

It was during this supposed confrontation at Walmart in Smelterville that Summers claimed a union member told him, “you may want to watch being out in public in that Jeep. Something is liable to happen to you or it.”

SCSO did take a statement from Summers regarding this incident after the fact.

The next day, USW 5114 again referenced the two in a post– stating Summers’ name and accusing him of attempting to start trouble with the striking Lucky Friday miners on behalf of Hecla Mining Co. President, Phillips Baker Jr.

“The SCAB driving the jeep is named Richard “little d***” Summers. Hecla has obviously encouraged him to create aggression and violence!! Another one of Bakers flunkies. Hecla is putting him up in Silver Mtn. Resort condos so he can hide his borrowed jeep in the back parking lot.”

On Aug. 15, the Union again reiterated their stance on Summers and the company.

“Lucky Friday management is obviously getting desperate as they are now encouraging one of their SCABS to attempt to provoke violence!!! A true showing of their management style!! Signed with pride, Dave Roose.”

The Shoshone News-Press reached out to both Summers and USW 5114 President David Roose for comment on the results of the investigation, but neither could be immediately reached.