Photo: Getty
A mother from Scotland is thanking her lucky stars that her 7-year-old son was not inside his toy car when it burst into flames on Dec. 26.
Pauline Thomson of Dundee, Scotland, recounted the harrowing experience toThe Scottish Sun, telling the outlet that her son and six cousins were playing with a ride-onMercedes from Kids Cars Directjust moments before it caught fire in a wooded area of the family’s garden. The kids had left it there after the battery became depleted.
“My son came back about 10 minutes later to go push it up the hill to charge the car and there was flames leaping out of the seat,” Thomson, 43, told the U.K. publication of the toy vehicle she’d gotten her son for Christmas the previous year.
“He came inside and shouted [to] his dad and itvery quickly became a big fire,” Thomson added, admitting she was “in shock” at the blaze. “It was pretty horrendous, the flames were about 6 to 8 feet tall.”
“There’s a seat-belt strap inside it so it doesn’t bear thinking about if one of the children were inside the car. There was about seven children there when it happened but thankfully none of them were near the car,” she continued. “It would have meant they would have been strapped in andtrapped there while it was on fire.”
Children in ride-on toy car.Getty
Thomson, a mother of three, spoke with bothThe Scottish Sunand U.K. outletThe Courierregarding the “concerning and frightening” incident, saying she is “relieved” her “children are safe.”
“It could have been a tragic accident. Imagine if one of our children had been inside,” she toldThe Courier, adding, according to both publications, “The car is normally inside our house too so if it had happened indoors it could have destroyed our home.”
Despite the scary turn of events, Thomson toldThe CourierthatKids Cars Directwas “excellent” at communicating with her regarding the fire, saying, “We have been blown over with how cooperative they have been.”
“The managing director was on the phone within several hours,” she explained, according to bothThe CourierandThe Scottish Sun. “They were going to collect it but the carwas completely destroyed so therewas no point. Our main concern is that we wanted to make sure people are aware this has happened.”
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The Courierreports that they weren’t able to learn a possible cause for the fire from Kids Cars Direct, but that the company has notified all other customers “who purchased cars from the same batch.”
“The manufacturer (Kalee) have confirmed that they haven’t experienced this issue previously and I can confirm that neither have we,” the spokesperson continued. “Kalee are a large manufacturer that has sold this particular item and similar models across the world into global retailers. … The affected carwas a licensed Mercedes car.”
source: people.com
