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2018 TOYOTA RAV4 — ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

fire · 1890689 · 2023-04-26

Vehicle

Make
TOYOTA
Model
RAV4
Year
2018
Manufacturer
Toyota Motor Corporation
Component
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
Yes
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

I only had possession of the vehicle for less than 3 weeks and it seemed to be running without problems. Besides driving the car on the date I picked it up, this was only the fifth time I had driven the car. On April 17, 2023, I was driving the car to an appointment when it stalled while in motion. It did restart without any problem (though I did detect a faint odor that I thought might be a rubbery smell, but now believe was probably an electrical smell), and I drove it the remaining approximately half mile to the appointment. When I got out of the car, I noticed what I thought might be steam (thinking the problem may be the radiator) coming from under the hood. I now know this to have been smoke. I went in the building, signed in, and looked back to the car to see flames coming from under the hood. The fire department was called to put out the fire, and a fire marshal came to investigate the cause. The fire marshal told me that the fire initiated at the battery. I have requested a copy of the investigation report, which he told me will be forwarded to me when it is completed. The car has since been towed to LKQ Pick Your Part salvage yard. Two other cars parked next to me were also damaged by the fire. My safety was at risk as I now know that I was in the car when the incident initiated and the fire began. Others in the area could also have been injured as the fire accelerated. The car was parked in a school parking lot, so had the car exploded, there could have been many i

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11519105
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown