Viewer: attempted jump start starts car fire

DEKALB COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) It was anything but a normal afternoon at the Swank house.

Haley Drerup used Report !t to send WANE these pictures of her parents' cars she said caught on fire after an attempted jump start.

According to Jump-Start instructions published by CarTalk , "[c] ar batteries contain up to 700 amps of current in them—enough to set both you and your car on fire." These pictures certainly illustrate that this can happen. 

Haley said her parents were trying to jump start an '87 BMW with the '06 Buick SUV Sunday afternoon. Annette Swank, her mother, was letting the cars charge while she went inside to use the bathroom. Just minutes later, she walked outside to see her cars in flames.

"I grabbed the fire extinguisher, but the wind was so strong," Swank said. "It just whipped the fire up too fast for the fire extinguisher."

According to Haley, the wind fueled the flames and the fire extinguisher was not enough to douse them. The family had to wait for the fire department.

Swank says it wasn't caused by any error on her part but isn't sure what caused the fire.

"I've been jumping cars for 40 years," Swank said. "I know how to jump a car, you hook the red to the red, the black to the black."

Swank's other daughter, Aris Fought, is home visiting, so Swank was jumping her old BMW to give Fought a car to use while she's here.

"So, I also was feeling bad about that because had it not been for me being here, they wouldn't have had to jump the car," Fought said.

The family is thankful nothing worse happened and that no lives were endangered.

"I'm just glad no one was hurt, and this will be a trip home that I will remember for a long time," Fought said.

And her sister agrees. Haley said, "The suv is a complete loss. Charred remains are all that are left. The driveway looks like a war zone but luckily no one was hurt. This was definitely fueled by some insane wind though."

Click here to see the CarTalk Official Jump-Start Instructions.

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