WINTER HARBOR (AP) – A spinning tire caused a truck fire in which a lobsterman died, an investigator said.

James Arnett’s truck tire began spinning after his pickup truck became stuck on concrete curbing in a public parking lot by the town pier. Firefighters were alerted at about 4 a.m. Saturday.

“The tire basically spun itself down into the pavement,” Sgt. Stewart Jacobs of the fire marshal’s office said. “Eventually the gas tank failed and (the gas) ran out onto the pavement.”

Arnett, 21, was inside the cab when the truck became engulfed in flames. Why Arnett did not get out the truck was unclear.

The state medical examiner’s office has not yet released a cause of death.

and was awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

Arnett had just finished his first year of operating his own lobster boat, local residents said.

AP-ES-12-30-03 1004EST