Jeb Butler | May 22, 2020 | Jeep Fire

photo Limited written text on yellow Jeep Our firm has handled several cases in which Jeeps caught fire or exploded after being struck in the rear. Typically, our cases have involved Jeep Grand Cherokees, Jeep Cherokees, or Jeep Liberties. Most of these cases are tragic — they involve wrongful death or serious burn injuries from the fire.

But sometimes, people escape from burning Jeeps. These are the lucky ones.

Below is a letter from one person whose Jeep Cherokee caught fire as she was driving through a residential neighborhood. The fire burned her Jeep entirely. Fortunately, she and her daughter were able to get out in time. Then she wrote a letter to FCA (the company that owns Jeep), the federal government (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA), the Center for Auto Safety, and our law firm.

Here’s the letter:

May 1, 2020

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you today to notify you of a serious safety issue with my previously owned 2017 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4×4.

On Wednesday, April 15, 2020, I was driving my 2017 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4×4 through a residential neighborhood. I was going about 10 mph when I noticed a smell and immediately stopped the car as I noticed smoke coming from the hood. My daughter was in the passenger seat. She said, “Mom maybe we should pop the hood”. I immediately said, “NO, we need to run” because flames began to come from the hood.

My daughter had her video on her phone and got the whole timeline. Within 4 seconds our entire car was engulfed in smoke and within 25 seconds there were huge orange flames coming out of the car. The car was completely burned from the front through the driver/front passenger seats and through the entire back seat passenger areas. The fire & rescue came within minutes and extinguished. We had not had any signs that something like this would happen to this vehicle.

We are so thankful we were driving in an area where it was easy to get out and going at a slow speed. There are so many other scenarios where the outcome could have been a LOT worse. We no longer have our car as it was deemed a total loss yet gratefully, we have our lives.

I surely hope what happened to us never happens to anyone else. I have serious concerns and reservations on buying a Jeep again after this experience. We bought this Jeep new less than 3 years ago and in my opinion this should have NEVER happened.

I feel like Jeep needs to be aware of this problem. My vin number did not have any recalls did not have aby recalls but it looks like the 2018 Jeeps did have recalls. If you need to get in touch with me to discuss, please contact me at or via email .