Cause of deadly truck fire in Las Vegas ruled undetermined

Las Vegas fire investigators were unable to determine the cause of a pickup truck blaze that killed a Texas man last month.

William Huckaby, 58, of El Paso was found burning in a truck on West Washburn Road on March 1, the Las Vegas Fire Department said.

“The fire appears to have started inside the vehicle, but the exact cause could not be determined,” the department said in a news release.

The Metropolitan Police Department, which also investigated the fire, said in March the truck was not in a crash before first responders found it ablaze in the road with Huckaby inside.

While the Fire Department did not give a cause for the fire, it indicated Huckaby might have been impaired.

During the investigation, authorities looked at security camera footage from a nearby Clark County School District property and saw the truck driving “erratically,” the Fire Department said Wednesday, “as if someone was driving impaired,” in the time before witnesses reported the fire.

The man’s cause and manner of death were still pending with the Clark County coroner’s office.

Authorities said a bystander tried to rescue the man from the fiery truck but was pushed back by the heat of the blaze.

Contact Dalton LaFerney at dlaferney@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0288. Follow @daltonlaferney on Twitter.