State police and city fire officials are investigating a suspicious blaze that destroyed a sport utility vehicle and damaged a garage in Butler shortly before dawn today.

Authorities believe the fire started in Timothy Crider’s 2002 Chevrolet Blazer and ignited the detached garage in back of his house in the 200 block of Wallula Avenue.

The Blazer was parked outside the block garage when the fire started about 4:30 a.m.

“It appears the car caught fire first and extended to the eaves and caught the garage on fire,” said Butler Fire Chief Nick Ban.

No one was injured and damage totaled nearly $20,000.

Ban said he planned to call the state police fire marshal: “It’s suspicious because I don’t know how it started.”

Neither did Crider: “There’s no reason I think of how it started.”

Crider was headed out to his vehicle to go to work.

“It was already on fire when I got to the car,” he said. “The front seat and dash were burning.”

He called 911 on his cell phone and dashed to his house to grab a garden hose.

By the time Crider got back to the vehicle with the stretched hose, the fire had ignited the wooded doors and roof line of the garage.

“I tried to slow the fire up on the inside of the garage,” Crider said. “That’s all I was trying to do.”

Firefighters arrived and quickly put out the blaze with foam and water.

Ban estimated the damage to the garage at $10,000 and another $3,000 to its contents. The loss of the vehicle is estimated at about $5,000.

All of the damaged property was insured.