'Run!': Florida grandma recounts moment car burst into flames as family drove down road
Car bursts into flames as Florida family drives down Ocala road
Nadrine Stocker was driving down an Ocala street with her daughter and grandson in the car when she says she started smelling gas. The actions she took in the seconds after that may have saved all their lives. Marion County Sheriff's Office bodycam video shows the aftermath of the fire that engulfed Stocker's Hyundai Sonata, shortly after they all got out of the car.
OCALA, Fla. - Nadrine Stocker was driving down an Ocala street with her daughter and grandson in the car, when she says she started smelling gas. The actions she took in the seconds after that may have saved all their lives.
Marion County Sheriff's Office bodycam video shows the aftermath of the fire that engulfed Stocker's Hyundai Sonata, shortly after they all got out of the car.
By the time the fire was out, about all that was left of the car was the metal.
Stocker says she knew something was wrong when she smelled the gas, but then she says she stepped on the brakes and nothing happened. "I tried to mash the brakes and they gave out. I put it in neutral, turned the car off, told my daughter to get my grandson, and go, run!"
MORE NEWS:
- New Year's Eve parties in Orlando: Airbnb to ban some U.S. bookings to limit house parties
- Disney World raises ticket prices: How much you'll pay at each park now
She says, by the time they got clear of the vehicle, the fire was already starting. "By the time we got further down the road, I turned around, it was like seconds, the fire was coming from under the bottom."
The fire was so hot that parts of the car even melted and fused with the blacktop, leaving behind debris like melted rubber and charred metal. Stocker says somehow, she made all the right moves that day. "As I remember, I could see any mistake I would have did, somebody would have died. How the fire was coming from under the bottom, it would have trapped the doors, so somebody could have easily died in that fire."
The family says their insurance company is investigating how the fire started.
Stocker's other daughter Brittanie Daley, the boy's mother, wasn't in the car during the accident. She says they had the car for less than five years and never had any problems with it. "They barely made it out, and I'm glad they snatched my son up and they made it out safely, but it looks like the car was just consumed by the fire."