Car fire at the car wash illustrates what drivers should do if vehicle is burning

ALAMOGORDO – The Alamogordo Fire Department responded to a vehicle fire on Panorama Boulevard on Wednesday afternoon, making for a situation that provides a lesson in what to do if a car starts to burn, said Alamogordo Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Jerry Ramirez.

The best thing a driver can do if a vehicle catches on fire is to drive the car into an open parking lot or an area without a lot of traffic, and get away from the vehicle, Ramirez said.

“Get far away from it because you also have tires that are exploding and gas struts that are in there that, once they come under heavy (flame) involvement, they will become rockets. There is no telling where they’ll go. We still haven’t found this one,” he said, pointing to the strut on the right side of the vehicle. “That’s why we recommend just getting out.”

That driver of the vehicle did the right thing, Ramirez said. The driver smelled burning coolant when she was driving and then pulled into the parking lot of B&J Car Wash after she saw smoke coming from under the hood, he said.

“But at that point, the white smoke turned into active flame. She got out of the car and ran across the street, and at that point the full engine compartment was involved in the fire,” Ramirez said. “In a matter of seconds, the fire went from the engine into the vehicle.”

Car fires are more common during the summer months, when the air conditioners are in heavy use and cars get more easily overheated, he said.

“Get yourself, get your family, and get your pets out of the car if there’s a fire,” Ramirez said.

Fortunately, the driver did not pull into the wash bay of the carwash and try to extinguish the flames, he added, because then we would have had a possible structure fire.