We submitted to King 5 Investigators KING 5 NEWS

OUR 2018 HYUNDAI KONA BURNED OUR HOUSE AND BOTH VEHICLES WE OWNED AND HYUNDAI REFUSES TO WARN OTHERS OF THE DANGER!

On May 5, 2025 our house and both vehicles burned up. Our 2018 Hyundai Kona was the cause. I drove to the local Camano Island IGA to buy a sprinkler head and an 8 piece chicken for dinner. I stopped at the end of our driveway to get the mail from our mailbox(left vehicle running as usual). I noticed a slight odor of burning rubber but thought the neighbor across the street was burning again and he had possibly put something he shouldn't have in his burn pit. I looked in that direction and there was no sign he was burning. Since I still smelled something I thought maybe the car was overheating. I got back in the car and looked at the panel for any warning signs. Nothing. I continued to the garage. Stopped and waited for the door to open. Parked in the garage as I have done hundreds of times. I collected my purse and bag of purchased items and headed up the stairs to the front door. I was not happy my husband had locked the door so I had to go back down to enter the house through the garage. As our recovered outside camera shows, I descended the stairs and noticed there was steam or smoke coming from under the hood of the Kona! I opened the door and yelled for my husband. He didn't answer so I ran up the stairs and found he was just stepping out of the shower. I told him, "The car is on fire and I'm not kidding!" The camera shows 90 seconds later as we both fly back down the stairs to find flames shooting out of the hood. You can hear us trying to put the fire out and me running up and down the stairs with a fire extinguisher and as we gathered our two 4 lb chihuahuas and called 911. My husband kept trying to put out the fire to no avail. He then tried to put the car in neutral to push it out of the garage. I still have that vision in my head as I'm standing outside the garage yelling at him to get out as the flames between us obscure everything but his face while the garage door begins to melt around him. A loud explosion and glass fell at his feet, snapping him out of his adrenaline driven efforts to push the car out of the garage. It wasn't a minute later that many more explosions occurred and flames made their way to consume the remainder of our house and truck, the last 35 years of memorabilia with it. It would be almost 30 minutes for the first water from the hoses to hit the house. My husband was having difficulty breathing, coughing non-stop and dizzy. We went by ambulance to Skagit hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation where they noted a partially collapsed lung. He was given a Rx for albuteral. It would be close to 3:30 am before we returned from the hospital in our friend's borrowed vehicle to our neighbors house with 2 frightened puppies in tow.

We purchased the Kona from the Burlington Hyundai dealership new and routinely brought it in for all scheduled maintenance to the dealership. We have the records showing we went to them for every scheduled maintenance and whenever they recommended something else we okayed it to be done. We did not take it anywhere else for any services other than car washes and we did not alter the vehicle in any way. To be fair we gave Hyundai Corpoation the opportunity to make it right. Unfortunately, as expected, their fire investigator came out with one purpose; to cover their own tails. They sent us a letter stating they can find no fault and thus deny our claims. We started looking into the Kona and history of Hyundai after this happened, wondering if there was any others with this problem. Wow! Hyundai has a long history of vehicle fires and there was even a class action lawsuit filed. It was dismissed with the judge leaving it open if there should arise more evidence. Here's the problem. Hyundai fires have done such a thorough job when they occurred there is no evidence left! They admit their vehicles caught on fire causing damage; however, claim no responsibility. Apparently the law requires root cause to show responsibility. Since there's nothing but ashes left there is nothing to point to the exact ignition source. What this means. Hyundai not only continues to sell and profit from these defective vehicles they don't have to disclose the danger to consumers! THIS IS SO WRONG! How do we get the word out so someone doesn't get hurt or worse?! While we are thankful for all that went right and the tremendous outpouring of love, we are left with trying to put the pieces back together and, because of inflation, half a house. If the front door wouldn't have been locked or it was later and we were sleeping...

PLEASE HELP US HOLD HYUNDAI ACCOUNTABLE AND MAKE THEM WARN CONSUMERS OF THIS INEVITABLE TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN AGAIN!

Our hearts go out to those who have lost so much more than us recently and don't know how we would deal with that kind of heartbreak and pray they find peace.

Thank you, LWHALEY

Note: We are going to contact TSA We have police report and body cam footage; Transcript of 911 call; Lots of photos; Camano Fire FB report with Kona on fire and house engulfed in flames; Video from home cam until it burned up; Hyundai maintenance summary report from dealership, including regular service with recommended add-ons, from just a few weeks prior to fire; Insurance info and payout for "total losses" of house and 2 vehicles; Insurance fire investigator confirmed fire started in Kona; Rebuilding estimates: 1) what it would cost to put back house as it was 2) to rebuild with insurance money for both interior and exterior. Noting interior includes everything in the house that if you turned it upside down, anything that could fall out (clothes, furniture, tools, food, most appliances, hot tub that melted 20 feet behind the house, toothbrushes...EVERYTHING); What we have found thus far about this ongoing problem including articles and names of investigators and investigative reporting done previously Burned up Hyundai Kona is currently in original boarded up garage as it was left for fire investigators. We've been keeping it pristine until all investigations are complete. We will not be paid for loss of vehicles until we release them (and the scene) to USAA. This also means we cannot rebuild yet.

I’ve been reading about Hyundai’s issue with engine fires in their other models. So far, I haven’t seen anything about this one... this may be due to a critter getting into the engine? Not sure, but if so, it would be the second time we’ve had critter damage with this vehicle. In three decades of owning and driving cars, I’ve never had critter damage and now we’d be running into that twice in one vehicle. I wonder if there is something to the accusations that the soy based wiring is attracting them?

I know the manufacturers mean well in using these earth friendly components, but maybe the engine isn’t the place to put them... we had our toddler in the backseat while it burst into flames at a gas pump. That was an experience I wouldn’t want to repeat. No thanks.