• A car fire in the Montreal Gay Village forced police to close a one-block radius to traffic on Friday evening.
• There have been many car fires in Montreal in recent years, usually due to mechanical issues. They are sometimes the result of criminal activity.
• Visit MTLBlog for more headlines.

A car fire in the Montreal Village caught the attention of pedestrians along the crowded rue Ste-Catherine this past weekend.

UPDATE: The SPVM confirms that the car fire was not the result of criminal activity.

EARLIER: Details are few, but witnesses say that smoked filled the street for several minutes before flames began to appear under the car hood.

Police officers who were already in the area ran to the scene in order to create a perimeter and keep pedestrians away. Streets and sidewalks within a one-block radius were closed to traffic.

Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the flames, but the fire created a dramatic scene beneath the "rainbow balls" of rue Ste-Catherine, which is closed to vehicular traffic for the summer.

The circumstances of the fire are unclear. We have reached out to the SPVM for more details and will update this article with more information as it becomes available.

A video shared with MTL Blog by an anonymous source shows the fire before firefighters arrived. 

This incident took place on the southeast corner of ave. Papineau and rue Ste-Catherine.

[rebelmouse-image 26890343 photo_credit="Google Maps" expand=1 original_size="619x600"] Google Maps

Montreal locals know that car fires are weirdly common in the city. Most incidents occur due to mechanical issues or, in the winter, exhaust pipes that are blocked with ice or snow.

Occasionally, however, car fires are the result of criminal activity.

In 2017, ant-gentrification activisits began a series of fires in the Montreal neighbourhood of St-Henri to deter developers and an influx of wealthy inhabitants.

In December of last year, the SPVM released a video that shows three individuals set a car on fire in Ahuntsic. One of the amataur arsonists is blown to the ground by the subsequent explosion.

You can watch that video below:

Stay tuned for more information on the latest car fire in the Montreal Village.

There are stories everywhere. If you spot a newsworthy event in Montreal, send us a message, photo, or video @MTLBlog on Twitter and Instagram.