Prius's spontaneously catching on fire?

i wonder how the investigation is coming along?

 

We had a 2010 Prius. In February of 2015 it caught fire in the middle of the night while it was parked in the garage (off) and we were all asleep. Thanks to our dog, who woke us up, we all escaped. Everything was virtually a total loss - cars, house, most of our things. However it is very difficult to prove exactly which part caused the fire, as it's completely incinerated. Our insurance is attempting to go after Toyota for their expenses. The fire most likely started very close to the right front headlight. If you google 2010 Prius fire there are a few others. Be careful if you have a 2010. We bought a Subaru. Will NEVER ever buy another Toyota. They have been horrible to us, saying it's not their fault, etc. The car had been serviced the day prior, by the way. So we may never know for sure if it was something done incorrectly at the dealership, or if it was a faulty part, or what.

 

This thread was started in '08....which was almost two generations ago.
I'm thinking that if the investigation isn't complete by now?

They're not going to find anything....

 

I realize that this is an old thread. I just wanted to find a place to warn people so my conscience is clear the next time it happens to someone else. We could have died. I did a search and this came up near the top. So someone else may do a search as well. I think people should know that if they have a 2010 Prius (especially if it was made towards the end of the model year) then perhaps they should not park the car in the garage.

 

Your civic duty is done.
Now I'll do mine.

You need better fire and carbon monoxide detection than a dog.

If you would have died from a house fire caused by an improperly repaired Toyota, then as much as I despise Toyota's dealership network, this would have been more of a Darwin thing than a Toyota thing.
Going forward, you need to lift the hood and physically verify that there are no loose fluid containers inside the engine compartment (oil cap, brake fluid cap, PSF, etc....) before you leave the dealership.....yes. Even with the Subie.

You also need to install and maintain proper fire extinguishers and (more importantly!!!) smoke and CO detectors.
In a properly equipped house, you and the dogs would have been awakened at the same time, and you might have been able to fight the fire and save some of your stuff....BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY dogs die in house fires and from CO just like humans do.....and usually for the same reason (because of people!)

If you get hard-wired detectors, or the cheap battery fed kind, they need to be tested and have fresh batteries installed every six months or when you set your clocks forward or backwards for DSL.


Good Luck!

 

@ETC(SS): Seriously? And those randomly selected victims shot down by a lunatic with an automatic weapon should have worn bullet-proof vests.

 

If the specific cause of the fire is not known, what significance does "especially if it was made towards the end of the [2010] model year" have???

 

If that's the deduction that you make, then I'll let you make it.

In order for you not to sound so irrational though, you should say "assault" weapon rather than "automatic" weapon. Other than the miss-named Colt M1911(A1) the word automatic is presumed to mean an automatic weapon....sometimes referred to as a 'machine gun.'
Despite the fact that fully automatic weapons (machine guns) are legal to buy and own in most parts of the country, they're actually involved in very few homicides compared to garden variety pistols, rifles, and to a lesser extent shotguns.
So if your aim (no pun intended) is to hate on firearms just for hate's sake, then proceed and good luck to you. However (comma!) if your intent is to bring light to, and be an activist against gun violence then perhaps you should become more familiar with firearms----or just stick with generic, media tested words like.....gun.
I submit that the shooter bears some responsibility in a shooting as well...but that's really another discussion for another thread.....on another forum, probably.


Unlike firearms, cars are not designed to detonate. In fact...engineers take some care to actually KEEP cars from exploding. This is why you can keep a car with 11.8 gallons of highly flammable (or inflammable......I always get that wrong!!!) 87-octane gasoline inside a garage after you drive it there when some parts of the car reach temperatures that are pretty stinking hot.
In fact.....usually when cars "explode into flames" OUTSIDE of Hollywood, human involvement is almost always required.
Things like:
1. Parking over dry leaves, newspaper, straw...etc
2. Parking and walking away from a car with a gas or oil leak in the HOT engine compartment!
3. Electrical modifications
4. Leaving the motor running in the garage.
5. ARSON
6. Transporting flammable (or inflammable) chemicals improperly.
7. A bazillion other things.

Since the number of G3s that are in operation are into six figures, and the number of G3 house fires is probably just in the two figure range........I'm going to take a wild guess and say that there is no Prius design problem....except perhaps a "smart key" system that isn't "fool" proof.....or even fool resistant.

One more thing.
When cars do catch fire without the aid of an accelerent, it's usually a very long process that generates a lot of smoke before things really get going. This is where a functioning smoke detector can change a tragic hull-loss/house loss incident into just a fire damaged car.
Most importantly this also dramatically increases the chances that nobody gets hurt in the fire, which is more important than the car, the house, and almost everything else that's been discussed thus far.....except maybe for the dog.


THAT should be the take-away here.

Good Luck!

 

Hmm, I guess it's possible to have something to say that might even be factually defensible in many respects, and still be a hell of a thing to say to people who have recently lost a house, personal belongings and cars.

I think it is pretty sensible to add the report to a thread that would be likely to come up in a search for incidents of that kind. In case any sort of pattern does develop, it is helpful to have reports in one place. After all, that was why I started the battery fires at ECU sense connector thread (though of course, in that one, I'm trying to vet reports so it only includes fires that seem to have started in that particular spot).

I do hope that any poster who wants to record incident information here on PriusChat also be sure to submit it (in the USA at least) to NHTSA, because that is another place people would hope to see if any sort of incident pattern was developing.

-Chap

 

how do we know it wasn't started by something else in the garage?

 

This report really belongs over in Gen3 and I do recall we had one report of a Gen3 fire in driveway...that would be better thread to tack this onto...

 

ETC(SS)
So sorry for using the term 'automatic weapon,' however as a decorated Vietnam combat veteran that is the term we used when referring to M16, M14, M1A1 and M2A, etc., all of which had selectors for fully automatic capabilities. Also, the term 'machine gun in my experience refers to the 50cal & M60 weapons. As far as my opinions on guns in our society, I have never been a supporter of the NRA types - a position that many of my combat veteran friends share since we actually used these "maching guns" in combat and, unlike a firing range, know what it's like to face return fire.
Additionally, the poster who merely intended to warn others of a possibly dangerous situation should be welcomed to post his experiences &/or opinions (but that would involve respecting our First Amendment rights wouldn't it?)
Case closed & Good Luck!

 

1. Thank you for serving.
2. I don't like the NRA any more than you do...in fact I probably don't like them as much as you do...but all of this is irrelevent to the thread. We can talk about all of that in the Pancake House, compare DD-214's and range scores, and see if the First Amendment really goes both ways.
3. I offer sincere apologies to kbb if my comments offended. Period. When I read their first post all I could think about was 3-foot coffins at a funereal. I've lost stuff including a house to disaster, so I know what that's like. I'd rather somebody die in bed from old age because some internet jerk offended them into checking their smkoe detectors, than have them die in bed from smoke inhalation.

Still, looking back the post seems a bit harsher than I intended for it to be and I offer a sincere apology for that.

Peace.

 

ETC(SS):
I suppose we both wandered off-course from the intended parameters of this site. Anyway, after reading your last post you seem to be a stand-up guy.
Bill

 

Well it might be a Urban Legend, but I sure had a very interesting night a couple of days ago. It's still under investigation but according to one neighbor, from his video cameras. It doesn't look like anyone was around when it blew up around 1230a. I guess we'll have to wait. So before anyone jumps on the band wagon, I did love the car

 

welcome.
ouch! was that your pip? maybe i should park outside.

 

since kbb never came back, i have to question her veracity. surely a house burning down would merit a newspaper clipping, police report or something.

 

any results, or i told you so's?

 

Reason # 102 why I should continue to take my Prius plugin camping to Alleghany state park!

 

Fires occur in regular old fashioned non-hybrid vehicles at a rate of about 750 per day. Only a bit over half are the result of crashes.

Prius's have nearly everything that those vehicles have, so it should be no surprise that some Prii burn too. So I see no real reason to preemptively dismiss possible cases in the Prius family as Urban Legends, or do a knee-jerk challenge to the veracity of those who report it.

But I would point out that so far, the rate of these Prius fires seems low. Several domestic car models were recalled after many hundreds of spontaneous combustion events each in just a few model years. Thus far the Prius events seem to be quite rare in comparison. I encourage those who allege such events here, to also report to NHTSA (File a Vehicle Safety Complaint | Safercar.gov | NHTSA). Let NHTSA do the veracity checks and decide which models are have more than ordinary problem rates. The entire motor vehicle industry, and the the public as a whole, stand to benefit from any findings.

And everyone who parks any motor vehicle in an attached garage should heed the warnings ETC(SS) gives back at Post #125. The garage and house themselves need to be the first line of defense against fires and toxic fumes, whether from motor vehicles or from any number of other things people commonly store or install in garages. And even from third-party suicide attempts, which on a few occasions have unintentionally snagged others sleeping inside the house.