Having your car catch on fire is probably one of the scariest things that may happen to you. Unfortunately, sometimes it just happens and, on certain occasions, it can be the car manufacturer’s fault.
This incident took place in Sun City, which is a luxury resort in the North West Province of South Africa, on September 2nd.
According to the description of the video, the reason why the car was completely engulfed by the flames was due to people trying to put the fire out using water instead of a fire extinguisher.
A person who was on location commented: “These guys were driving in front of me. I saw the smoke underneath the car and I stopped them. When we were investigating underneath the car, you could smell wires burning and the car didn’t want to switch off. The mistake the guys did is to try to take the fire out with water.”
The reason why this C-Class burst in flames in the first place has not been determined. Last year, Daimler recalled roughly 1 million cars worldwide (including the C-Class) to fix a starter part that could overheat and catch fire, but we do not know if that particular car was involved in the recall or if that was what caused the fire.
The only thing we’re sure of is that the owners of the car should have definitely used a fire extinguisher, which should have been on board the C-Class. Initially, the flames were mostly underneath the car, meaning that they might have contained it before it consumed the whole car. Presuming they did have one, of course…