After being serviced at our local Dealership, Volvo Marin, my Volvo XC 90 spontaneously burst into flames while parked in my garage causing a devastating fire that burned down the garage and two cars.
I was driving home with my daughter in my other car. We pulled into the garage and noticed smoke coming out of the Volvo while it was parked in the adjacent space in the garage. I got out and looked under the car and saw flames shooting out of the engine block ! The fire quickly spread resulting in a three alarm fire .
Please watch this video before considering purchase of a Volvo!
@cdaquila This is the 2nd time the OP has posted this in a new topic and he revived an extremely old thread with the same vehicleā¦can you look into this please? Heās only been here 35 minutes, Iām suspecting spamā¦
Sorry to hear about your Volvo and your garage getting burned up. I didnāt see a question in your post, but it is possible that the work done at the dealership is what caused the fire. And it is possible it had nothing to do with the fire. What you need is an independent expert to do an investigation on the cause. Preferably somebody experienced with servicing Volvos. Years ago I had the experience of a dealership mis-wiring a repair one time, but fortunately no fire. The resulting short circuit just melted part of the fuel pump relay is all.
Myself, Iāve only had involvement w/ car fire experiences twice. The first was caused by a faulty starter motor. The other due to a car alarm system improperly fused.
I didnāt watch your vdo, so maybe you explained this there. But it seems a little unfair to deduce the cause before an investigation is completed. Or do you have actual evidence the dealership work was responsible?
You have a casual relationship between the service and the fire - not a solid conclusion as to cause and origin. As @the_same_mountainbik says, get a lawyer and a competent investigator to determine what happened. For all we know someone left their lit bong on the seat or a rodent chewed through wires, maybe your daughter broke up with her boy friend and he is getting even. Lots of possibilities and without facts and evidence no conclusion can be drawn.
Well, my first reaction was to grab a fire extinguisher and try to put out the fireā¦ Not to drive the car back out of the garage !
When that was not successful, it was too late to drive it back outā¦
My auto insurance ( AAA) as well as my homeowners insurance (Chubb) both hired experts to determine the cause of the fire.
And they both agreed it was most likely as I stated.
What was their reasoning, evidence, etc that made them think the shop work was the cause? I realize any actual evidence probably got burned up. But they must have a reason to suppose that was the cause. Another question, if I may: What kind of work did they do on your Volvo?
Best thing about this, it appears nobody got hurt. Thatās a good thing.
Yeah theyāll do that sometimes. My sisterās Ford combusted in the garage by itself and did quite a bit of damage. They figured it was the Ford switch problem or something. The thing is though, you just deal with your insurance company and if they want to sue Volvo or somebody, thatās up to them. Insurance makes you whole, then they try to make it up if they want. No point getting mad. What saved my sisterās house though was the firestop sheetrock between the house and garage. Codes are there for a reason.
I donāt know what caused your fire, and apparently neither do you or you would have told us but I doubt flames were shooting out of your engine block. I would guess a fuel or oil leak. Given the lack of proof of cause, you have no evidence the dealer did anything wrong.
If someone went blind immediately after eating carrots, it would not be proof that carrots cause blindness.
This isnāt the profile of spam, but I did combine the two threads into one. I would also ask that you be careful of blaming the dealer by name as youāve been doing. Thanks, and sorry to hear about the fire.
Some of us have no idea what country Marin is in, let alone state. Must be either east coast or west coast though or Sweden. Iāll be sure not to take my Acura there though where ever it is.
You will need a solid determination from the fire investigators before you can do anything legally. Maybe.
Sounds to me like a little panic set in; which is not uncommon. Thereās no reason the car couldnāt have been removed from the garage before taking out everything around it. At least the barbecue would have taken place outdoors.
I also think youāre a bit too quick to warn people away from buying Volvos. The fact that itās a Volvo may have nothing at all to do with the cause of the fire. Now whether the Volvo service people had a hand in causing this is another discussion.
Itās too bad you canāt give some details of the situation. All we know is that you werenāt happy with your vehicle, it fought fire and fire investigators have been called. Letās hope you donāt need that lawyer.
Thanks everyone for their feedback.
Here are some more details-
The car had been making a strange noises and we had brought it to the dealer 5 times over the prior couple of months including a couple of days prior to the fire.
Multiple recent repairs were completed each visit, none of which solved the problem.
The car was parked in the garage on a cement slab. No combustible items around the vehicle or inside. The fire started in the engine block ( as witnessed by me and several other members of my family). The fire investigators have all concluded the fire started there as well and have ruled out any other cause of the fire.
When you say āThe fire investigators have all concluded the fire started there as well and have ruled out any other cause of the fire.ā, do you have something on fire dept letter head or is this from a conversation right after the fire? I am a fire fighter and we are cautioned to avoid saying anything to the property owner or the press, we let an officer handle that. With 5 fire fighters standing around after a fire, we will come up with 11 ways the fire could have started. People hear what they want to hear when they want to hear it and if they overhear part of our conversation they are quick to jump to their own conclusion. After a fire, emotions are running high and people who suffered a loss want an explanation and someone to blame. Having a fire start in the engine compartment is a long way from the dealer or manufacturer causing it. I am sure the dealer or manufacturer does not have a lot of cars catching fire, if they did there would be lots of noise being made in the press and with NHTSA.
Identifying where the fire started is not the same as determining cause. Saying the fire started in the engine does not tell us the cause of the fire. Nor does it link the fireās origin to the servicing.
We canāt offer more from here than condolences and perhaps a thank you for passing the information on. Best of luck.