Car Caught On Fire By Lit Cigarette, Green Country Couple Says

<p>A Green Country woman believes a lit cigarette is to blame for catching her car on fire while she was driving.</p>

Friday, August 18th 2017, 9:16 pm

By: Justin Shrair


A Green Country woman believes a lit cigarette is to blame for catching her car on fire while she was driving.

Regina Striplin said she believes it all started when something on fire flew right through the grill of her car and got sucked into the air filter.

Striplin said she's got a way with cars. 

"If I get in the car I've been known to be the death of that vehicle," Striplin said.

But she says she never could've anticipated this.

Striplin was driving from Nowata to Bartlesville when she came to a stop sign and says her car just turned off.

She says she tried to restart it, but couldn't. She then noticed smoke and got out of the car.

"Some gentlemen came over to help me and we got the hood opened and as soon as we did, flames shot up from the left side. We had no idea what was going on," Striplin said.

One of the men was able to help put the fire out.

Striplin said during the ordeal she was able to get a picture.

"I'm now at the point of freaking out because I missed my physical therapy, my car's on fire and I'm in another town so it was pretty concerning," Striplin said.

She eventually had her car towed home.

Her husband, who has been working on Mercedes cars as a hobby for about 25 years, took a look and contacted some mechanics.

Striplin even Googled to try and find out what could have happened, but her husband was sure of the cause.

"A cigarette butt or a flaming shooting object came flying through into the air filter and caught it on fire," Striplin said.

Striplin said her kids were concerned, but are glad she's OK.

In the meantime, she said it's become kind of a joke.  

"But also it became kind of like, of mom killed another car, in our house though , I'm not the only one though," Striplin said.

News On 6 put in a call to Mercedes Benz USA.

They said while they have not heard of something like this happening, if any type of incident like that happens, customers should sure to call and make a report to the automaker.

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