LONGWOOD, Fla. – A Central Florida family has hired the Nation law firm to fight for compensation for the loss of a 2012 Ford-F-150 that suddenly caught fire in their driveway this past January.
[WEB EXTRA: Pics: Truck ignites ]
Patrick and Kim Perkins of Seminole County say their truck was still under warranty when the 4x4 vehicle started oozing smoke out of the front vents this past January.
Patrick Perkins says he turned the key to start the defroster and warm up the truck for his daughter as he was getting ready to take her to school.
Once he started the engine he says, in a matter of minutes, it was cooked.
Ten-year old McKenzie Perkins told Local 6 remembers smelling smoke as she sat in the passenger's seat.
"The smoke was slow but the fire, once I pulled my backpack out, was fast," she says.
She jumped out and told her mother to call 911.
Seminole County fire dispatch told the family to get everyone out of the house.
Kim Perkins her two sons and the family dog ran to the back yard. She says the truck had been trouble free until that morning.
"My concern is what if they had gotten to school, what if they were sitting in car line," Perkins said.
Longwood attorney Mark Nation says he has not found a pattern of fires linked to the 2010-2014 Ford F-150's.
"Right now we don't know exactly what the cause is," Nation said. "We have a fire investigator, we have an electrical engineer and we're putting Ford on Notice so that we can all inspect the truck at the same time."
According to Nation, the truck has been wrapped and moved to a location outside of Lakeland.
Local 6 also found an identical case involving the same year and model Ford truck.
38-year-old Brian Szalbofka says he just walked into the Wawa store in Collegeville, Pennsylvania when his truck started burning.
It happened Jan. 2, 2014, the same month and year as the Perkins' truck fire.
Szalbofka says he only lives 5 miles from the store. The 2012 model had 19,000 miles.
The fire marshal on the scene that day says the "only thing investigators know for sure is that it was not intentionally set."