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Ford Truck Fires Mount as Recall Rolls Slowly

Consumers Urged to Park Vehicles Away from House and Garage

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 23, 2006

Flaming Fords • Ford: Parts Now Available to Fix Faulty Cruise Control • Ford Trucks Burn in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina • Feds Probe Ford Windstar for Fire Hazard • Ford Truck Suspected in North Texas House Fire • Ford Cruise Control Fire Strikes Florida Car Dealership • Ford Hopes to Wind Down Recall of Fire-Prone Vehicles • Ford Expedition Suspected in Fatal Ohio Home Fire • Ford Fires Continue Despite Long-Delayed Federal Warning • Feds Warn Some Ford Trucks and Cars Can Erupt in Flames • Ford Fire Lawsuits Spread • Ford Recalls 57,000 More Trucks, SUVS for Fire Hazard • Ford Fires Strike in Minnesota, California • Ford Plans Another Recall to Fix Fire Hazard • Ford Fire Hazard Recall Creeps Along • Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute Continue Ford Fire Tradition • Ford Fires Kill Pets and Spread Despair as Year Ends • Ford Lacks Parts for Fire Recall Repair • New F150 Erupts in Flames as Ford Truck Fires Rage On • Red Hot Texas Car-B-Que • Kerry Vows Action to Get Flaming Fords Off the Road • Flaming Ford Scandal Disgraces Ford, Feds • Ford Tries Again to Fix Fire Problem with Massive Recall • One Ford the Recall Missed • Ford Stops Sales of Big Super Duty, Recalls 2008 Trucks • Ford Recalls 155,000 More Trucks to Fix Fire Hazard • Feds Probe Fires in Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute • Feds Wind Up Ford Engine Fire Probe with Massive Recall • Ford Truck Fires Mount as Recall Rolls Slowly • Ford Trucks Burn As Recall Fiddles • Ford Truck Fire Fix Delayed by Parts Shortage • Ford Recalls 4 Million Trucks to Fix Fire Risk • Nader Demands NHTSA Warn Ford Truck Owners • Wrongful Death Suit Charges House Fire Started in F-150 • Feds Look Deeper for Ford Fire Causes • Recall Leaves Many Questions Unanswered • Houston Lawyers Sue Ford • Ford Recalls Some Fire-Prone Models • Feds Probe Ford F-150 Engine Fires • Ford Recall Was Biggest Ever --- • Bronco • Crown Victoria • Dump truck • Expedition • Explorer • F-150 • Other F-Series Trucks • Focus • Mustang • Ranger Pickup • Taurus • Windstar

Laureen in Red Bluff, California, is a lucky Ford F-150 owner. She is lucky not because of the quality of her Ford truck but because of her caring neighbors.

Her truck is gone. Burned to the ground. Her house was untouched by the blazing Ford F-150 because of her alert neighbors.

Last October Laureen came home after a day-long outing to find her neighbors struggling to extinguish her burning Ford F-150 truck.

"The truck was parked and not running. The cab was burned completely," Laureen wrote ConsumerAffairs.com. "My neighbors had seen the smoke and ran down the hill to try to put out the fire as it was right next to my home and my propane tank."

"They were unable to save the truck."

After more than 150 reports to ConsumerAffairs.com of Ford trucks catching on fire for no apparent reason, many readers and owners of the Ford trucks have adopted a new self-defense tactic: they no longer park the vehicles near their house or in their garage.

Ford is supposed to begin fixing the potential fire hazard in the cruise control system of the 3.8 million pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that are part of the recall this month.

Ford recalled 1994-2002 model year F-150 pickups, Expeditions, Navigators and Broncos in September because of engine fires linked to the cruise control switch system. That recall was the fifth largest in history.

Laureen however, says that she did not receive a recall notice.

"After looking into the cause of why this had happened I found that this truck had a recall on it that I was never informed of by the Ford Company.

Laureeen reported her truck fire to Ford and to her insurance company.

"Ford kept passing the buck down until I came to someone who ultimately made the decision to say they would not help me out as the truck was too badly burned to know how the fire had started," she wrote.

Her insurance company told Laureen that because there was a recall on her truck they would not cover the fire damage.

The Red Bluff fire department made a report of the fire blaming the cause on "some type of wiring fault," according to Laureen. "I have been going out of my mind trying to go through all the channels to get some help and answers on how to handle this matter with nothing but dead ends," she said.

Ford advises that vehicle owners can request that the cruise control system be disabled until the vehicle is repaired.

In the meantime, park your Ford truck away from anything that burns.

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