Hybrid Car May Have Sparked Garage Blaze

[thundley4]

Fire Destroys A Barkhamsted Garage On Center Hill Road

BARKHAMSTED, Conn. -- Fire officials suspect an electric hybrid car may have sparked an overnight blaze in a garage in Barkhamsted on Center Hill Road.
Homeowner Storm Connors and his wife, Dee, said they awoke to the sound of a smoke alarm around 4 a.m. The couple said they have lived in the home for nearly 40 years. They built it and raised their children there, so when the flames took over their attached garage Thursday morning, burning it down to its beams, the couple started to panic. They said they were worried they were going to lose their home and the memories inside.
"I walked outside and looked in the garage door and it was flaming," Dee Connors said. "I grabbed a pocketbook so I'd have a cellphone and a driver's license and a jacket and a pair of slacks. I had no shoes, my feet were freezing."

*snip*

Officials said they can't rule out that the couple's brand new Chevy Volt hybrid had something to do with the blaze.

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So much for decreasing their carbon footprint. 

[Thor]

I remember when I got to my first squadron and was going through plane captain school. We were warned that the NiCad battery onboard the aircraft could just arbitrarily go into "thermal runaway" and ultimately self-ignite.  Over my career, I've found several that were bulged due to some malfunction. (meaning they were starting to go into thermal runaway) They were quickly removed and isolated. If they were remotely warm, we had been instructed to place them in a 55 gallon barrel of water. It doesn't help that a good majority of the batteries that power these new vehicles are made in China.