ELLSWORTH, Maine — June McAlpine was annoyed that her minivan had been making strange noises as she ran errands Wednesday in Ellsworth. When it stalled near her 44 Red Bridge Road home, she was confused.
McAlpine was driving home from the grocery store with her three young children, she said. After the car went dead, she said she pushed it a ways before it started again. She parked the 2002 Dodge Caravan near a shed a short distance from her front door.
She went inside and started making dinner for the kids, figuring she would have her husband Bruce check it out when he got home. At that point, she said she smelled antifreeze and could see the car had been leaking the blue fluid.
Fifteen minutes later, McAlpine heard a boom. She looked out the window and saw smoke pouring from the van. A neighbor, Josh Wilbur, was visiting and ran out to try to put out the fire. He said he saw flames when the wind shifted and cleared the smoke.
“I ran out with the fire extinguisher, but it was just a little one,” Wilbur said. “Once the windshield blew out, I stepped back.”
At that point, McAlpine was dialing 911. She had to use her daughter’s phone because her trembling fingers couldn’t manage her smartphone’s touchscreen.
“I was just so stressed out,” she said. “It was hard to dial 911, I was panicking so hard.”
Ellsworth Fire Department received the call around 5 p.m., according to Lt. Ken Worden. Engines 4 and 7 responded, and by that time, the van was fully engulfed in flames, he said. By the time firefighters had extinguished the blaze, the van was gutted. Not a window, seat cushion or plastic interior detail was spared.
The gravity of the blaze hit McAlpine when, just before 6 p.m., she was allowed to examine the damage.
“Where are the car seats?” she said as she peeked through the window. “They’re just gone.”
Lots of things can cause fires in cars, Worden said, from problems with electrical system to defects in the engine. He said the best you can do with an ignited vehicle is stay back and put the fire out.
“I don’t get near a car until I’ve got an air pack on,” he said. Worden said the vehicle’s shocks or gas could be dangerous in a fire, and steering columns contain magnesium, which burns hot.
By 6 p.m., the fire engines were gone and the destroyed van sat in a pool of foam and water, and McAlpine’s family and some friends were standing around, chatting about the extent of the damage.
Worden said it was unclear exactly what had started the blaze, but the fire and police departments were investigating.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
LOL glad we got rid of our 2002 Grand Caravan now. Hopefully nothing shows up as wrong with the replacement.
I had a 98 Dodge Caravan drop a gas tank on the Bangor Road last winter. The car had just over 100,000 miles on it but it was rusted right out. It just quit on me and I managed to get over to the side of the road safely. When the tow truck arrived he discovered that I was leaking gas. I am grateful this family is safe following their ordeal.
I had a 1990 Grand Caravan with the 3.3 V-6. The fuel rail started leaking. It has a swivel fitting where it comes around for the front 3 injectors. I caught it early because there was a faint smell of gas when I got in one morning. You need to pop the hood and check things more often with older vehicles.
I recently put a batter charger on a car that hadn’t been started in 3 or 4 weeks. A mouse or something had built a nest against the head on the exhaust manifold. Probably abandoned it when the sun made it too hot under the hood. It was very dry grass and packed in well. I had to use an old toothbrush to get it all out of there. There were hoses and wires right above it.
Glad the family is uninjured and that this is just a thing that can be replaced.
When water hits burning magnesium it becomes very interesting.
Glad nobody was hurt though and I hope it was insured.
Chemistry Major perhaps?
Nope, just like science and other geeky stuff.
All you people leaving young children in you vehicles, while it is running so you can run in to get your smokes, take notice.
Exactly. Wait in the car while you send your kids in to get smokes.
Parenting 101 here people.
Anti freeze is green.
Umm not all is green………
Use to be, but some now take different colors ………………………………. some GMC products take an orange colored anti-freeze ……………………………. so maybe Dodge is blue.
mine is orange..
That same kind of thing happened to Mr. McAlpine’s tow truck a few years back…..hummmm
very interesting isn’t it.. things that make you go hmmm.. so she supposedly pushed this van with her three children in it for a ways before getting it going? so the automatic van just jump started its self? or it decided to start running again.. hmmmm.. anything to make the story sound good im thinking.
I’m so glad this young family is OK. And Mrs. McAlpine, insurance is supposed to cover the kids’ car seats too, so make sure you go after it.
Having owned a dodge caravan I can safety say that they are the biggest pieces of crap in the world. The sliding door just fell off one day, not to mention that after a brief 50k both front doors would close. I will never buy a Dodge again.
Thank goodness all of them were out of the car when this happened – I would say they have a guardian angel looking out for them!
Everyone that I know that has owned one has had nothing but problems with them, new or old.
It had nothing to do with her driving…. what a stupid, pointless comment
I know it didn’t, but still there was a woman that was driving it thats all.. Just had to point that out.
I had a ’97 Grand Caravan that burst into flames in a Hananford parking lot. For months it had acted as though a poltergeist possessed it: gas tank needle swung up and down binging, electric locks thunked up and down, wipers worked, didn’t work, — an electrical mess that the car guys couldn’t fix. So glad it wan’t parked in my garage or the house would have gone up too!
it is well documented that 90’s and early 2000’s Chrysler products were able to burst into flames at any time. As someone else mentioned there was/is a recall on the fuel rail for many of these, also well known for electrical malfunctions starting at the gauge cluster and just for kicks they put in one heck of a transmission in there automatics also, the caravan and voyager being the worst. There are liable to internally come apart and put a hole in the transmission case all while driving till you have no fluid left… That being said I’m glad no one was hurt in here and hopefully others with these products will notice this.. PS. Another DANGEROUS feature with 90’s chrysler products is there lack of brake-shift interlock. In 95% of these vehicles you can start it up and put it right in gear without touching the brake pedal!!!! This is very dangerous as someone said, Leaving car running while running into the store- with kids still in the car….