Car Parked on Leaf Pile Bursts Into Flames

by Judy Silberstein; photo by Paula Eisenberg

(November 20, 2008) A hot car parked on a pile of leaves burst into flames, destroying the vehicle as Larchmont firefighters were preparing to put out the fire on the corner of Linden and Grove in Larchmont Manor around 9:30 Tuesday morning, November 18.

The car, a Nissan Maxima, belonged to Rosa O’Bando, who was beginning a day of babysitting for the Betten family on Linden Avenue. “I was sitting at the kitchen table around 9:15 and saw smoke, “ said Karen Betten. “At the same moment, my son was throwing up with the stomach flu.” It was one of those days.

Both the police and then the fire department arrived “pretty quickly” said Ms. Betten. But, by the time water came out of the fire hose, the front of the car was on fire, with flames shooting higher than the Maxima’s roof.

Ms. Betten spent the day after the fire going door to door to warn neighbors not to park on top of leaves. One neighbor, Ghassan Bejjanni, said around ten years ago, “the same thing happened” not far away on the same block.

Larchmont Fire Chief Rich Heine confirmed that similar fires can occur as often as 4-5 times a year, depending on conditions. “Catalytic converters and exhaust systems are low to the ground and generate a lot of heat,” he explained. “If you park on top of combustible material, the heat will transfer to the pile” and ignite the leaves and then the car.

Mr. Bejjanni suggested that “they should either educate people on what not to do, or pick up the leaves more often.”

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