6 Cars Burned In BART Parking Lot

ANTIOCH, CA — Firefighters extinguished a fire Thursday afternoon in a BART parking lot in Antioch that damaged six cars, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said.

One car was already ablaze in the "eBART"— East Contra Costa BART Extension —parking lot adjacent to Slatten Ranch Road when crews arrived shortly after 2 p.m., Con Fire Spokesperson Steve Hill told Patch.

The fire then very rapidly spread to five more vehicles, Hill said.

"It was pretty clearly caused by someone trying to steal gasoline from cars; they were using an electric drill to drill into the gas tank, which no doubt started the fire," Hill told Patch.

It is a slanted parking lot and flames flowed downhill from the first car to the other five. One of the cars was a Tesla but the battery did not catch fire, Hill said.

"Six BART passengers are going to have quite a surprise when they get back here," Hill said.

There were no suspects at the scene when Con Fire arrived.

"It would appear whoever started the fire very quickly departed the scene for obvious reasons," Hill said.

The Antioch Police Department responded and was investigating the fire, as well.

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