The Atlantic Fire responded Wednesday night to a report of a vehicle fire near the gas pumps at the central Casey’s Store (701 Poplar Street). The call came in at around 8:22-p.m.  Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees told KJAN News a man in a pickup truck had just fueled-up his vehicle and started to back away, when he smelled fuel and soon thereafter, saw flames. He managed to put the fire out with an extinguisher before fire crews arrived.

McNees said the cause of the fire was not clear, but it could have been a bad fuel or brake line. The brake line was damaged by the fire. He said also, that the vehicle had a “nice motor,” and that the owner had done a lot of work on the engine.

The fire department was on-hand to assist with the clean-up. Atlantic Police and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office were also on the scene. Fire crews returned to their base about 12-minutes later.