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Newly serviced car catches fire at home, Roanoke woman says

The woman said she could "smell something hot" when she pulled into her garage. Shortly after, flames were licking from under the hood.

REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times

Firefighters clear the garage Monday evening after a blaze broke out at a Roanoke home. A woman said smoke then fire came from under her car's hood shortly after she pulled into the house.

REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times

Janice Gray of Roanoke sits with her dog on the front steps of a neighbor's house as she watches fire fighters put out a blaze in her garage. "You see this happen to everybody else, but you don't think it'll happen to you," Gray said.

REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times

Firefighters tend to the blaze that broke out in the garage of a Roanoke home Monday evening.

REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times

Emergency vehicles line the 2300 block of York Road in Roanoke.

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Jordan Fifer | 981-3349

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The car had just been serviced. Inspected, even. And it passed.

Then it caught on fire.

Janice Gray had pulled her 2006 Buick LaCrosse into her Roanoke garage Monday evening when she first noticed a problem.

“When I got out, I could smell something hot,” she said less than half an hour later, as firefighters wrapped up from fighting a blaze in her home’s lower level . “As I was going into the garage, I noticed smoke coming out from under the hood.”

Crews responded to the fire in the 2300 block of York Road Southwest just before 6:25 p.m., said Roanoke Fire-EMS Battalion Chief M.D. Dewhirst. They had the fire under control within 10 minutes.

Gray sat on a porch across the street and recalled what she believes sparked the fire. She said she had just returned home from a Roanoke car dealership after having the sedan inspected when she smelled the smoke.

Soon dark puffs were pouring out from the car, Gray said, and by the time her friend got home a few minutes later, flames were licking from under the hood.

Gray escaped the fire without injury, as did her friend of 30 years, Tom Scarce. The pair has lived in the home for 20 years, she said.

Scarce ran into the home and retrieved Haley, a 7-year-old mutt. Kasey, a gray-striped 11-year-old tiger tomcat, was unaccounted about an hour after the fire.

“I inherited him from the neighbor that used to live next door,” Gray said. “After the neighbor moved, the cat kept coming back, so I said I’d take him.”

Gray said Kasey usually roams outside during the day. She was hopeful that was the case Monday evening.

Dewhirst said no firefighters were injured putting out the blaze. Department spokeswoman Tiffany Bradbury said the fire started in the car and was contained to the garage, but said smoke damaged the first floor of the home. She estimated about $24,000 in damage was done to the structure and the car.

Dewhirst said Gray and Scarce would be temporarily displaced because power had to be cut from the home.

A representative from the dealership where Gray had the $281 in service done arrived at the home after she called them to report the incident. Gray said the house and car are insured.

She held back tears as she sat across the street from her home and watched firefighters cut through a side gate.

“You see this happen to everybody else, but you don’t think it’ll happen to you.”

Saturday, September 14, 2013