A few years ago before electric cars starting hitting the mainstream, I worried about the day when house fires might become attributed to the battery powered cars in their garages.

Last year much was made about fires in a garage where there was a Chevrolet Volt. Now reports have arrived implicating a Fisker Karma in a serious home fire.

Autoweek has posted a story quoting a Texas fire official who claims a Fisker Karma was directly responsible for a house fire.

According to the official "Yes, the Karma was the origin of the fire, but what exactly caused that we don't know at this time."

He noted the owner pulled into his garage with his brand new Fisker Karma that was at most 60 days old. The owner immediately smelled burning rubber and within three minutes the car was up in flames. It was not plugged in at the time.

The vehicle was a post battery recall version. Though there was about $100,000 in damages, fortunately no one was hurt.

Fisker issued the following comment:

Last week, Fisker Automotive was made aware of a garage fire involving three vehicles, including a Karma sedan, that were parked at a newly-constructed residence in Sugar Land, Texas. There were no injuries.

There are conflicting reports and uncertainty surrounding this particular incident. The cause of the fire is not yet known and is being investigated.

We have not yet seen any written report form the Fort Bend fire department and believe that their investigation is continuing. As of now, multiple insurance investigators are involved, and we have not ruled out possible fraud or malicious intent. We are aware that fireworks were found in the garage in or around the vehicles. Also, an electrical panel located in the garage next to the vehicles is also being examined by the investigators as well as fire department officials. Based on initial observations and inspections, the Karma's lithium ion battery pack was not being charged at the time and is still intact and does not appear to have been a contributing factor in this incident.

Fisker will continue to participate fully in the investigation but will not be commenting further until all the facts are established.

Source (Autoweek)