These two parked vehicles were damaged when another vehicle was involved in a collision Friday, July 1, 2022, on Elk Street in Buffalo, near South Buffalo Auto Parts. The Buffalo Fire Department and Erie County District Attorney's Office are investigating if a recent graduate of the Buffalo Fire Academy was driving the car that crashed into a parked vehicle and later caught fire.   

Buffalo police are looking into a car crash and fire involving a man who graduated hours earlier from the Buffalo Fire Academy.

Before dawn Friday, firefighters hurried to the 600 block of Elk Street for a car fire that followed a crash there, according to the Buffalo Fire Department.

Surveillance cameras at the business, South Buffalo Auto Parts, recorded the collision. A person who has seen the video, who asked to remain unidentified, said it showed a chain reaction: A vehicle hit the business’ parked tow truck, which pushed the truck into a passenger vehicle parked on the lot, pushing that vehicle into the Buffalo Police Department’s tow truck, which was at the site for repairs.

However, the video then showed other men arrive at the scene and revealed that the fire to the driver’s vehicle may have been intentionally set, the person said.

A police officer came upon the burning vehicle at around 4:35 a.m., according to radio transmissions stored by the web service Broadcastify. The officer called in the fire and said "the driver bailed out, no direction or anything." The officer then called in the license plate number of the abandoned, burning automobile.

A spokeswoman for District Attorney John J. Flynn said his office also is investigating the incident, which she described as a motor vehicle crash and subsequent fire to a vehicle "registered to a recent Buffalo Fire Academy graduate." The graduate was not identified.

Another person with knowledge of the matter said fire department officials are questioning three recent Fire Academy graduates, one of whom was the driver. The Academy graduated 43 people on June 30.

While police are involved, a police source said the Buffalo Fire Department has taken the lead in the investigation. Fire Commissioner William Renaldo did not return a message from The Buffalo News seeking comment.

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The recent Buffalo Fire Academy graduate whose car crashed and mysteriously caught fire before dawn on July 1 is 25 years old and lives about a mile from the accident scene.

These two parked vehicles were damaged when another vehicle was involved in a collision Friday, July 1, 2022, on Elk Street in Buffalo, near South Buffalo Auto Parts. The Buffalo Fire Department and Erie County District Attorney's Office are investigating if a recent graduate of the Buffalo Fire Academy was driving the car that crashed into a parked vehicle and later caught fire.   

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