Knut Grevle had been home about 15 minutes when his neighbor came to his front door.
"I was in complete shock," Grevle said, remembering the moment his neighbor told him that his 2017 X3 BMW 28i, which was less a year old, was on fire.
Grevle ran and told his wife and father before running out to his vehicle. With an 18-month-old son, Grevle made sure his family was safe before tending to his vehicle.
"The hood of my car completely engulfed in flames," Grevle said.
Grevle and his wife both called 911, and emergency personnel responded to the fire within five to 10 minutes, according to the car owner. That wasn't quick enough.
"It was long gone," Grevle said.
The car owner called BMW corporate and was told that his vehicle was not on the recall list.
News
Top news of the day
"I'm really eager to figure out what happened and make sure it doesn't happen to other people as well because if it was in a garage or behind my wife's car, those would have been up in flames, and our house would have been up in flames," Grevle said.
The car owner says he didn't hear any strange sounds on the drive home, the vehicle was off and there was nothing that should have triggered the flames. In fact, he said he normally parks the vehicle behind his wife's car, but luckily, Grevle picked an open spot on the street--or the flames would have probably spread to at least another vehicle and may even the couple's home.
"I'm pretty confused," Grevle said he was "shook up" and in "complete disbelief" because the vehicle was less than a year old. The father had been a BMW owner for 15 years but had recently shifted up to the SUV as a family car with a toddler at home.
"I think my biggest fear when everything went down was that my wife and son, who was upstairs, were OK," Grevle said.
He added, "I didn't know what to think because our fence also caught on fire and if the fire department wouldn't have gotten here sooner, you just don't know how quickly it can spread."
