Suspicious fire badly burns school lunch van in Turlock

Firefighters battled two blazes over the weekend, including a suspicious fire that badly burned the interior of a school lunch van, authorities said.

The Turlock Unified School District lunch van was burned in the district’s secure parking lot at 1441 Colorado Ave. at 10 p.m. Friday night.

Turlock Fire Department had one battalion chief and two engine companies on the scene for about two hours. The fire is under investigation, a news release said. School officials said Monday vandals were the culprit.

“The vehicle damaged is not a ‘lunch truck’ per say. It is a multipurpose delivery van that operates out of the Child Nutrition Department,” said Mike Trainor, head of business services for Turlock Unified School District.

The district is working with Turlock police following the blaze, which the Turlock Fire Department is calling suspicious.

“Unfortunately, vandalism does increase during the summer months due to student and staff vacation time,” Trainor said via email Monday.

“Currently, we are evaluating the damage to the vehicle and should know more in the very near future,” he wrote.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a house fire in the 3000 block of Duquesne Way on Sunday at around 8:30 p.m. A neighbor called 911 after spotting smoke.

A stovetop kitchen fire burned cabinets around the stove. One battalion chief and three engine companies worked the scene and had the blaze under control within five minutes.

The fire caused about $6,000 in damage. The occupant was not displaced by the blaze.

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 9:27 AM with the headline "Suspicious fire badly burns school lunch van in Turlock."