Cop car fire.
WEST TOLEDO -- It wasn't just a routine car fire. A Toledo Police cruiser caught fire as a patrolman was on his way to a call, causing several small explosions as ammunition stored in the trunk blew up. It happened in west Toledo, at the corner of Dryden Drive and Burnham Avenue, causing tense moments for the people who live there.
Patrolman Timothy Meyers was on his way to a call when the fire started. He was able to jump out and call for help. That's when the fire really took off. "It was about as tall as that tree almost," said Chucky Hawkins, who watched it all. "It was up there, after it hit that gas tank, all the flames, it was roaring. It was huge, man."
The fire left a trail of debris behind for several hundred feet, but then the real danger started. Meyers had a loaded shotgun in the trunk, where the fire is thought to have started. Four or five rounds of ammunition exploded in the heat. "I told everyone we had live rounds in the car and to go back into your houses and stay away from the windows," said Meyers.
"And all of a sudden, you hear, 'BOOM!'" said Hawkins. "Ammunition! It was the shotgun shells going off... There was a couple loud ones and I seen everybody jump. They got scared."
Police got the residents to safety and the explosions stopped. Officer Meyers doesn't know how the fire started, but theorized maybe boxes of road flares are to blame. The car, a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria, was left in a burned, melted hulk. The emergency lights were charred, and the seal of the city of Toledo was barely recognizable. And the back tires? Reduced to skinny strings of rubber.
Patrolman Meyers managed a smile. For him, it was just one of those days. "I've been doing this for 20 years," said Meyers. "Not much surprises me anymore."
News 11 recently did an investigation of Toledo Police Department cars. In documentation received from the department, Unit 251 had roughly 60,000 miles on it, and about $11,000 had been spent to maintain it over its life cycle. That made it one of the younger cars in the fleet.
Some TPD units are still in service with more than 200,000 miles on them, and more than $50,000 spent to maintain them
{I think it was the Crown Vic in general that caused the fire. My brother-in-law was doing a speed trap in Maumee Ohio. As the was sitting there in his duty CV and the car idling, he said he could hear the gasoline bubbling in the tank. He said he jumped out and ran some distance away. Later the mechanic said the converter had started to burn and the heat from that was boiling the gas]
Patrolman Timothy Meyers was on his way to a call when the fire started. He was able to jump out and call for help. That's when the fire really took off. "It was about as tall as that tree almost," said Chucky Hawkins, who watched it all. "It was up there, after it hit that gas tank, all the flames, it was roaring. It was huge, man."
The fire left a trail of debris behind for several hundred feet, but then the real danger started. Meyers had a loaded shotgun in the trunk, where the fire is thought to have started. Four or five rounds of ammunition exploded in the heat. "I told everyone we had live rounds in the car and to go back into your houses and stay away from the windows," said Meyers.
"And all of a sudden, you hear, 'BOOM!'" said Hawkins. "Ammunition! It was the shotgun shells going off... There was a couple loud ones and I seen everybody jump. They got scared."
Police got the residents to safety and the explosions stopped. Officer Meyers doesn't know how the fire started, but theorized maybe boxes of road flares are to blame. The car, a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria, was left in a burned, melted hulk. The emergency lights were charred, and the seal of the city of Toledo was barely recognizable. And the back tires? Reduced to skinny strings of rubber.
Patrolman Meyers managed a smile. For him, it was just one of those days. "I've been doing this for 20 years," said Meyers. "Not much surprises me anymore."
News 11 recently did an investigation of Toledo Police Department cars. In documentation received from the department, Unit 251 had roughly 60,000 miles on it, and about $11,000 had been spent to maintain it over its life cycle. That made it one of the younger cars in the fleet.
Some TPD units are still in service with more than 200,000 miles on them, and more than $50,000 spent to maintain them
{I think it was the Crown Vic in general that caused the fire. My brother-in-law was doing a speed trap in Maumee Ohio. As the was sitting there in his duty CV and the car idling, he said he could hear the gasoline bubbling in the tank. He said he jumped out and ran some distance away. Later the mechanic said the converter had started to burn and the heat from that was boiling the gas]
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