Janel England
News Editor
On the afternoon of Nov. 5, Wooster resident Deija Hardnett’s car caught flame while she and a passenger were driving south on Beall Avenue. Cena Keegan, a Lowry worker, and her fiancé, Andrew Burns, were driving in front of Hardnett’s car when they noticed that their were flames and smoke coming from underneath it.
“Like any other couple in our early to mid-twenties, my fiancé, Andrew Burns, and I had a romantic dinner of Taco Bell before wanting to enjoy the last few days of nice weather outdoors with our dog. As we were driving south on Beall Avenue, my fiancé happened to glance in the rear-view mirror of our car and gasped. The car behind us was on fire! I glanced back myself and saw there were indeed flames underneath the car with an unaware couple inside,” Keegan said in a statement to the Voice.
Keegan and Burns then pulled over and began to flag Hardnett down. After multiple attempts, Hardnett and her passenger eventually exited the car and Burns called the fire department.
While the four waited, Keegan reported that, “there were flames not only on the underside of the car, which was turned off, but also starting to burn on the asphalt.”
As stated in a report from the Wooster Fire Department, by the time the fire engine arrived — a total of five minutes after Burns made the call — the fire had moved into the passenger compartment.
The report stated, “fire in passenger compartment appeared to be coming from around the middle console gear selector.”
Some College of Wooster students congregated at the scene. Emily Glickman ’17 said, “I saw the fire truck and it smelled like hot dogs […] The entire inside of the car was on fire. I could see flames inside the car […] Basically under the passenger and driver’s seat and it had caught into the interior […]The entire car wasn’t up in flames, but the interior was.”
Upon arriving at the scene, the fire department hosed the car down “under the vehicle in the transmission” and the “battery cable was disconnected.” However, Keegan stated, “even after they hosed the car down, thick smoke billowed from it.”
The report also stated that Hardnett had noticed the day before that the car had begun “jerking” while driving. The report said that besides this “Ms. Hardnett was unaware of an issue until told by witnesses that there was a fire coming from under her car.”
The report concluded that, “due to the ‘jerking’ that was present during operation and the location the fire was initially noticed, the origin of the fire is believed to be transmission, caused by an unknown mechanical issue or failure.”
Although the damage to the car resulted in a total loss, no one was injured. “We were on our way a few minutes later, both shocked but very much relieved that no one got hurt,” said Keegan.