Family upset with Ford after SUV catches fire

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This article was published 22/09/2021 (938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man is looking for an apology and compensation for a troubling incident in which he and his family had to jump out of their 2021 Ford Explorer after it suddenly caught fire.

Steven Paradis and his family had left Blue Lake Provincial Park in northwestern Ontario, with their camper in tow. While driving on Highway 647 toward the Trans-Canada Highway late last month, the dashboard warning lights flashed. The family had owned the SUV for less than a year and it had around 8,000 kilometres on it.

Concerned, Paradis, who was in the vehicle with his wife, mother-in-law and two young children, pulled over.

“I went, ‘OK, this is serious,’ and went to stop and you could smell the smoke already,” he said.

He popped the hood and saw flames, Paradis rushed to get his family out of the vehicle and grabbed the fire extinguisher from his camper, but it was too late to save either the SUV or the camper.

“She was already engulfed. We were just able to get everyone out of the vehicle and get away, and that’s when she just burned down in front of us,” he said.

MPI’s investigation confirmed the fire started in the engine but the cause was undetermined.

The vehicle and the camper are covered by insurance, but clothes, food, car seats and the family’s electronics were burned in the fire. Their two-year-old daughter had no shoes or diapers.

The financial burden is only a small aspect of what the family lost.

Paradis said his wife is getting therapy to deal with the incident, and his young daughter has suffered trauma. He said she reacts negatively to seeing exhaust smoke and smelling asphalt from construction near their home.

So, Paradis reached out to Ford Canada with their story last week. He wants the company to apologize for the incident and compensate them for items that burned. He said they received a cookie-cutter reply that didn’t address the issue.

“They pretty much came back and said, ‘We keep a high standard of our vehicles. Unfortunately this happened to you guys. Please go through your insurance and if they need to contact us, they will. Goodbye,’” he said.

He said their dealership tried to reach out to Ford Canada and received the same reply.

Ford Canada did not reply to the Free Press.

Paradis said they might contact Transport Canada if Ford doesn’t address their concerns.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_