A car caught fire on the Midway Plaisance Dec. 5 just after 3:30 p.m., grabbing the attention of students and adults who were walking home or to their cars, or waiting for a bus.
After noticing that their engine was smoking, all passengers exited the car, according to students who witnessed the blaze. A few minutes after the car stopped, the fire started.
Firefighters were able to put out the fire around 4:10 p.m., and according to an on-site police officer no one was hurt during the blaze.
Lab’s director of security, Mike McGehee, said the fire started because of a mechanical failure, and as soon as he found out about it he went to see it for himself. Campus safety officers and the school resource officer also went to the scene.
“When I heard about it I walked out there,” Mr. McGehee said. “We were all out there. The SROs as well as the CSOs and myself and the UCPD were on the scene.”
Junior Cruise Lickerman saw the fire after walking to his car.
“I was just sitting there and then I look around, and I look behind me and I see a red SUV that had smoke coming from the engine, and across the street from me was an empty parking space, and they pulled into the empty parking space and then everybody got out of the car,” Cruise said. “I was just sitting there for 30-45 more seconds, then I looked under the car and something under the car was on fire.”
As Cruise started driving away, he saw the car burst into flames. Some students, like junior Macabee Callard, rushed to the site of the fire. Macabee wanted to document the fire for friends and parents.
“I was walking in between the P.E. building and the main building and I heard this big sound and I saw people running, so I ran out with my little brother and I saw the car on fire,” Macabee said. “There was a ton of smoke and there were a ton of people rushing, some people I knew and a bunch of cops and firemen were there. It was a really big fire, there was smoke all over the Midway when I got there.”
According to Mr. McGehee, it is important to consider the possible dangers of being near a burning car — as rare and shocking as a car fire like this may be.
“People are always going to be interested in things they’ve never seen, they’ll want to take pictures. I have seen a good amount of cars on fire, I know enough to stay away,” Mr. McGehee said. “My advice would be for anyone, call 911 or UCPD if they ever see something like that, and try to stay away from whatever is occurring, such as this car fire.”
