The owner of a small camper van and his dog are safe after their vehicle was consumed in a fire in a Brunswick parking lot on Thursday morning.

The man was inside the Goodwill store at 21 Gurnet Road when the van ignited just before 10:30 a.m.

Brunswick Fire Chief Ken Brillant said a dog was in a kennel inside the vehicle, but the owner rescued the animal, escaping with minor burns on his hands and a singed beard. The dog was unharmed.

The older-model van had been converted into a camper, according to Brillant. The fire started in the living space of the vehicle, but firefighters were unsure of the cause.

Crews extinguished the fire quickly, Brillant said, and were only at the scene for about 30 minutes.

Firefighters were also in the Cook’s Corner area early in the day for a small fire in an apartment at 9 Perryman Drive. Brillant said that call came in at 1:44 a.m. after some trash left on top of a stove had caught fire.

The fire was out and the debris only smoldering when firefighters arrived. Firefighters evacuated the apartments on either side and removed the smoke from the building.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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