NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - A battery-powered toy Jeep burst into flames just moments after kids had been playing with it.
Michelle Kline said she bought the SportRax Awesome XL for her 3-year-old Quincy and his little sister Nellie, but never expected it to pose such a danger to her family.
"Part of the reason we bought the Jeep we bought is because the weight," said Kline. "I think they company told us it was rated for. It was 4 wheel drive."
Kline said her two children were driving up the neighbor's lawn when smoke began to pour out from under the hood. That's when she pulled them out of the toy car without thinking twice.
"They were buckled in and they are both little so neither of them could have got themselves out," said Kline.
As soon as the kids were safe, the Jeep went up in flames, burning for several more minutes.
"It was alarming how quickly it went up, it went from a little bit of smoke to a full-on fire within like 2 minutes that was the scary thing," said Kline.
North Andover Fire Chief Bill McCarthy said the fire appeared to be related to the toy's battery, but figuring out the exact cause of the fire may be nearly impossible.
"The mother did a good job of noticing something was wrong," said Chief McCarthy. "We notified the Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as the Fire Marshall’s office just to see if they’ve had something similar."
As for the kids, Kline says they don't seem to be bothered about losing their toy, but says she has no plans to replace it.
"That’s sort of the bigger thing, you don't want this to happen to someone else," said Kline.