Deputies investigate hit-and-run and pickup truck fire in Portage Township

A pickup truck that allegedly fled a crash on Orr Buyck Road ended up fully engulfed in flames in a nearby driveway, turning a hit-and-run call into a fire response in Portage Township. Deputies said no one was injured in either the collision or the blaze, even as the incident quickly moved from a traffic complaint to a scene with both law-enforcement and fire concerns.

The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said the call came in around 4:20 p.m. Monday, June 15, after the pickup allegedly struck another vehicle near Schlomka Road and then headed west on Orr Buyck Road. Not long after the crash, a vehicle fire matching the pickup’s description was reported in a nearby driveway.

When deputies reached the scene, the pickup was fully engulfed. No one was inside the truck. The driver was later located and was being processed for charges related to the incident, but the sheriff’s office had not named that person or released formal charges Monday.

The case underscores how quickly a routine roadway crash can turn into a larger public-safety response in northern St. Louis County. A vehicle fire in a driveway can threaten nearby property in a matter of minutes, especially in rural areas where homes, outbuildings and tree cover are often close together. In this case, the fact that no one was hurt prevented the incident from becoming much worse.

Portage Township sits about 15 miles north of Orr, Minnesota, in a part of St. Louis County that is defined by long road stretches, forested land and scattered homes. The county describes itself as the largest county east of the Mississippi River and says it is home to about 200,000 people. Its emergency management function operates out of the Sheriff’s Office, a reminder that traffic enforcement, fire response and broader emergency coordination often overlap in the same call.

The Monday fire came after another Portage Township emergency on May 15, when deputies and multiple state, local and federal firefighting resources responded to a wildland fire in the township around 4 p.m. Taken together, the incidents show how quickly rural public-safety calls in the area can escalate and how closely deputies and fire crews may have to work when a crash, a fire and a possible crime scene converge.