A city of Salem car burned after a Salem man allegedly set fire to the front seat using hand sanitizer. (Courtesy/Greg Walsh)
A Salem man has been accused of setting two city vehicles on fire by pouring hand sanitizer out of his methamphetamine pipe on to the driver’s seat and lighting it.
Matthew Terrance Mungenast, 20, was charged with second-degree arson, unlawful entry into a motor vehicle and first-degree criminal mischief on Jan. 26.
On Jan. 10, Salem police officer Jeffry Gordon got a call there were two vehicles on fire on top of the Pringle Parkade on 399 High St., he wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
The interior cab of a Chevy Colorado was burnt to the metal flooring. A neighboring utility van was also burnt by flames with the estimated damage totaled at $45,000, the affidavit said.
Another officer found Mungenast under a bridge with live ammunition and a credit card from a city vehicle, the affidavit said. Mungenast had a warrant for his arrest for theft and was lodged in the Marion County Jail on that charge on Jan. 22.
When he was first interviewed on Jan. 12, Mungenast told officer Gordon his friend lit the fire with hand sanitizer.
Two weeks later, police interviewed Mungenast’s friend, who said he left the parking garage after the pair smoked meth together but was woken up a couple hours later by Mungenast saying he set fire to a car.
Mungenast told Gordon he broke the window of the truck, found a bottle of hand sanitizer and used it to clean out his meth pipe, according to the affidavit. He dumped the hand sanitizer from the pipe into the front seat and set it on fire, he told police.
Mungenast told Gordon as the fire got out of control, he tried to find a fire extinguisher to put it out. He told Gordon he broke open the fire hose lockers on the roof, the affidavit said.
Mungenast is being held at the Marion County Jail.
-Saphara Harrell
