Port Arthur, TX — April 15, 2025, One person was injured following an RV fire that occurred at around 10:00 A.M. on Hwy 69.

An investigation is underway following an RV fire that left one person injured during the morning hours of April 15th. According to official reports, Rene Orena was inside an RV that was parked at an RV Park near Highway 69 and 21st Street when for unknown reasons the RV caught fire which trapped him inside.

A witness to the fire took action and was able to extract Orena from the RV, and upon arrival by first responders he was transported to the hospital with burn injuries. At this time it remains unclear what caused the RV to catch fire, and there has been no update as to the victim's identity or status of their injuries, however this is an ongoing investigation and more details may be released in the future.

Commentary

I’ve seen a lot of vehicle crashes in my time, but anytime I hear about a fire—especially one where someone gets hurt—I start thinking about whether it could’ve been prevented. That might sound like hindsight, but in my experience, fires that start in vehicles often stem from problems that had nothing to do with chance.

Right now, authorities say that an RV caught fire for “unknown reasons” and injured someone inside. That phrase—“unknown reasons”—gets used a lot in early reports. But it shouldn’t be treated like a final answer. It’s actually a signal that more investigation is needed, especially if someone got hurt.

I bring this up because in many cases, the root cause of a vehicle fire has to do with how the vehicle was made, maintained, or repaired. You’d be surprised how often a fire that looks random ends up being the result of an electrical issue, a fuel system problem, or poor work done by a service shop. In one case I handled, a client was injured when a fire broke out in his vehicle after a fuel line repair. The shop had failed to follow basic safety procedures. We didn’t know that at first—but we found it out once our investigation went beyond the scene.

The truth is, most fire-related crashes don’t get a full forensic workup. That’s not because no one cares, but because local authorities often don’t have the resources to examine the vehicle’s remains in a lab setting. That kind of work takes time, expertise, and equipment that goes beyond what most police departments have.

So what happens? They mark the cause as “unknown” and move on.

In my view, that’s not good enough—especially not when someone got hurt. Investigators need to look closely at how the RV was wired, where the fire started, and whether there were any recent repairs or modifications that could have played a role. That’s the only way to figure out if the fire was just an unfortunate event or something someone could have and should have prevented.

I can’t say what caused this fire, and I’m not pointing fingers. What I can say is that experience has taught me this: when a vehicle catches fire, it’s not always random. And if people aren’t asking the right questions, they’ll never get the real answers.