If anyone you know has a 1992-2004 Ford vehicle or truck, please read:

Exactly one year ago our truck spontaneously combusted in the middle of the night while parked in our driveway. At about 4:30 a.m. we woke up to the sound of a horn blaring on and off. Perhaps teenagers reveling rather early over the last day of school? Then my husband ran down the hall into our two younger sons’ room which has a window over the driveway and saw his truck on fire. Flames were about 10 feet straight up in the air. “My truck’s on fire—call 911!!!” So I ran into our bed's footboard (ouch!) and we both ended up calling 911.

We all stood on the front lawn, away from the truck, telling the operator to HURRY because there was a full tank of gas in it and we heard popping noises. By this time the flames were about 30 feet high—straight up from the engine, and very close to an oak tree. Neighbors started to come out because you could apparently hear glass shattering and rubber exploding. We started to hear the sirens get closer and closer. The firefighters quickly put the fire out with a giant extinguisher and then lots of water. They estimated the temperature was at 2,000 degrees. Hot enough to completely melt even anything aluminum—it made a silvery liquid pool across part of the driveway.

“What year was the truck”? asked a policeman? We told him it was a 1998. Can I tell you how brand new it looked? Can I share with you how our boys are not allowed to eat or drink in our cars unless it is a rare occasion and that this truck was lovingly washed by hand just about every week of its life? And an oil change every 3-5K? I think not--more like every 2,500 miles for this baby. A squeek heard anywhere? It was fixed. Brand new tires? Check. Aligned? Check. Change of filters, belts, etc.? Check. Not a spot or scratch inside or out. This was a lean, mean, barely used driving machine. It was really a beloved truck. “Since it was 10 years old I bet you only had minimal insurance on it”, he wondered. I went into the house and looked at our policy. I had meant to lower the insurance coverage, but it was still completely covered.

I mention the pristine appearance of this truck only to paint a picture of it and not to mourn the loss of this material item. Let me describe how lucky we are. Here is a picture of the demolished truck in our driveway.

Do you see the garage at the top of the driveway? The previous night my husband parked it right next to the house. Do you see the flag? Right above that is the window and room where two of the boys sleep. Five months prior to this day, the truck was parked in the garage right under their beds each and every night.

For many years we’ve been a 3-vehicle family: a car, a truck and an SUV. We upgraded the SUV five months ago and the Ford F-150 got demoted to the driveway each night. Thank you God for that decision.

We had received two notices from Ford to have the speed control deactivation device unattached at a dealership. With school ending that very same day, going to a Ford dealership that week was on my husband’s list of things to do. The actual corrected part was not available for another month. So he'd have to make two visits to a dealership. No where did the letter state how serious the recall notice was. Later that day my husband called Ford at the customer service number listed on the letter. He asked how likely it was for anything serious to occur. “Not very likely” is what he was told. “Well, guess what happened at 4:30 a.m. today”, my husband told him. He was transferred to another number and told the story. He told Ford how lucky we and they are that he was not calling about a different ending to the story. Ford asked my husband what he wanted. “I just want a conversation with someone at Ford” is what he said.

We received a letter a couple weeks later from Ford simply stating that Ford had sent us several letters over the years (huh? we’ve lived in 3 homes in 3 years at one point and only recently had received two letters sent regular mail). There was no mention of “sorry, we see that this is your second Ford truck you’ve owned” or anything else. They stated they have no liability and for us to work with our auto insurer. The end. BTW we have since received another letter about this VOLUNTARY recall advising us to have the part replaced as there may be a potential for a fire to start while parked or moving.

We did some research and have found that this has happened to many, many people out of the 9.6 million Ford vehicles* recalled. There are lawsuits in Georgia and Texas from lives lost when fires from under the hood of Fords parked in the garage caused the entire house to burn down. There are many, many stories of houses burning down, with no lives lost.

The recalled part is the speed control deactivation switch. Fluid can drip, drip, and the electrical component is always energized and can spark a fire. The new part to fix it costs $20.

We are lucky. The fire under the hood of our Ford burned nothing around it. It had rained really hard that night so the trees were wet. There was nothing in the Ford except for music cds. Our auto insurance claim was as fair as if we sold it to a private party (we’re so glad we didn’t sell it to anyone). We have other vehicles. The money helped as I was laid off 3 weeks prior to this event and it took 4 months to find another job. We bought a smaller truck to replace it (Hubs loves landscaping and DIY projects and is lost without a truck). It was not a Ford.

What else we learned: we are mostly cell phone users and they are usually left downstairs. We now have an extra cell left on bedroom floor of house at all times. I only let myself imagine for about 5 seconds how our sons' bedroom is separated down a long hall from us and how they’d be trapped from us if the unthinkable had happened. We’ve talked about different plans and scenarios since then.

According to Ford there are still millions of vehicles not yet repaired. Please forward this to anyone you know with one. All you have to do is enter the vehicle PIN here.

List of vehicles affected from Ford's website:

Trucks:1997-2002

Expedition1998-2002

Navigator2002-2003

Blackwood1993-1996

Bronco2000-2003

Excursion (built prior to 11/4/02)1992-2003

Econoline E-150/250/3501996-2003

Econoline E4502002-2003

Econoline E5501998-2002

Ranger1998-2001

Explorer/Mountaineer2001-2002

Explorer Sport (2 door) &

Sport Trac2003-2004 F-150

Lightning1993-2003

F-Series (Under 8500 lb. GVW)1993-2003

F-Series (over 8500 lb. GVW) – all plants except Cuautitlan1994-2003

F-Series (over 8500 lb. GVW) – Cuautitlan built only prior to 1/7/031995-2002

F-53 Motorhome Cars:1992-1998

Town Car1992-1998

Crown Victoria1992-1998

Grand Marquis1993-1998

Mark VIII1993-1995

Taurus SHO (automatic transmission)1994 Capri

*equipped with speed control. Diesel engine equipped vehicles are excluded from recall