Man using hot charcoal to warm vehicle instead starts fire, officials say

Site staff by Site Contributor

Photo by Tim Olk





A man attempting to warm up his vehicle Thursday afternoon caused it to catch fire after placing a baking sheet full of hot charcoal underneath it, fire officials said.

Madison Fire Department crews responded to the home in the 3700 block of Karstens Drive at about 12:30 p.m. The vehicle was in flames in the parking lot.

The fire was not threatening other vehicles or buildings and was extinguished within 10 minutes, according to the report. Damage extended to both front seats and into the rear of the vehicle.

The owner told firefighters his vehicle had been frozen for the past three days and wouldn’t start. To warm it up, he put charcoal on a baking pan and lit the charcoal. After the flames died down, he put the pan of charcoal under his vehicle in an attempt to thaw it. About five minutes later, he noticed flames in the engine compartment and called 911.

He escaped the vehicle uninjured, but the vehicle is a total loss, fire officials said.

Two days earlier, a crew responded to a similar incident on Spring Street. There, firefighters met a man who had set two baking sheets of charcoal under his Chevy Express minivan for the same reason, according to the fire department.

Firefighters removed both pans and extinguished the charcoal, telling the vehicle’s owner this type of burning was both illegal and dangerous. The owner stated he “does it all the time,” and indicated he would simply buy more charcoal and defy the firefighters’ orders once they left. It’s unknown whether he did so as firefighters were not called back to investigate illegal burning or a vehicle fire.

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