Photo: Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District / Twitter
Whenever popular sports cars are mentioned in the news, we’re used to getting reports of driver errors leading to spectacular fails and dramatic action. But, at least on this occasion, the problem that prompted the owner into "save mode" seems to be mechanical. Of course, that is of little to no comfort for the man that was lovingly restoring his white 1994 Corvette and now must scrub a pile of charred remains.
According to reports from NBC-2 News and local first responders, the C4 ‘Vette has been destroyed in a rather dramatic manner by a small garage fire that quickly escalated into a full blaze in quiet Lehigh Acres, Florida, on Monday afternoon (March 22).
Apparently, the owner was busy tinkering with the 1994 example of “America’s sports car” as he was trying to restore the C4 for the past two years after acquiring the sports car. His prized ride, which had already been treated to around $20k in repairs by the time of the incident, was parked inside the garage of the owner, William Harrington.
“Just doing a compression check. Usually, I can do that without a problem,” tried to explain Harrington to the reporters. “It just went boof! Then I see flames and I try to put it out, but the garage was filled with smoke,” he added, saying that he also heard a loud bang, and the smoke erupted from under the hood.
Footage provided by the security cameras has been embedded in the NBC-2 video that’s available online and shows how quickly things escalated into a dramatic situation. As far as we can tell, the owner had just seconds to spare as he tried to push the Corvette outside the garage so the building didn’t get engulfed in flames as well while also clearing the driveway of other vehicles.
As it turns out, his quick thinking avoided a larger disaster, though the Chevy now has to be written off as a total loss because of the fire. Firefighters arriving on the scene reportedly found the Corvette already engulfed by the flames, and luckily the owner had time to get the car in the middle of the alley crossing the driveway and escape “with very minor injuries.”
Apparently, the owner was busy tinkering with the 1994 example of “America’s sports car” as he was trying to restore the C4 for the past two years after acquiring the sports car. His prized ride, which had already been treated to around $20k in repairs by the time of the incident, was parked inside the garage of the owner, William Harrington.
“Just doing a compression check. Usually, I can do that without a problem,” tried to explain Harrington to the reporters. “It just went boof! Then I see flames and I try to put it out, but the garage was filled with smoke,” he added, saying that he also heard a loud bang, and the smoke erupted from under the hood.
Footage provided by the security cameras has been embedded in the NBC-2 video that’s available online and shows how quickly things escalated into a dramatic situation. As far as we can tell, the owner had just seconds to spare as he tried to push the Corvette outside the garage so the building didn’t get engulfed in flames as well while also clearing the driveway of other vehicles.
As it turns out, his quick thinking avoided a larger disaster, though the Chevy now has to be written off as a total loss because of the fire. Firefighters arriving on the scene reportedly found the Corvette already engulfed by the flames, and luckily the owner had time to get the car in the middle of the alley crossing the driveway and escape “with very minor injuries.”
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