Daytona Beach News-Journal, "Deltona man warns of truck fires"

A Deltona man whose Ford pickup caught fire in his garage, extensively damaging his home, is warning others that it could happen to them, too. Roberto Garcia-Nazario said his 1999 Ford F-150 burst into flames the evening of Dec. 13, some nine and a half hours after he parked it and turned off the ignition. Garcia, who ran for mayor in Deltona's first municipal elections in 1995, said he "lost everything" in the fire, and his main concern is that it also could happen to someone else.

Last month the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initiated an inquiry into the problem after receiving three dozen reports nationwide that engine compartment fires had started hours after the owners parked their vehicles, the agency's Web site says."We do currently have an active defect investigation into 2000 model year F-150s," Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the federal agency, said in a phone interview last week. "It has to do with problems with the cruise controls, but it seems many fires are occurring when the ignition switch is off." The probe also involves 2000 model year Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators, a document posted on the agency's Web site says. In a letter to Ford Motor Co., agency officials also asked for data from any Ford vehicles from model years 1992 through 2002 that contain cruise-control deactivation switches similar to those being investigated.