Burning car draws DeLand firefighters to manufactured-home park

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Neighborhood alert — Residents from A Better Place and Hawthorne Hills next door came out to see what was going on Tuesday afternoon, June 23, after a car caught fire in the entrance drive at A Better Place.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Happy and safe — Verne Bury of DeLand hugs her grandson Billy Lowry, after escaping from her car, which caught fire Monday afternoon on the south end of DeLand.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Total loss — Verne Bury's 1989 Chrysler New Yorker looks like a total loss after it caught fire in South DeLand Monday, June 22, just as she and her son were arriving home. Firefighters work to put out the last of the blaze. Bury and her son quickly exited the vehicle when the engine caught fire, and neither was injured.

By Barb Shepherd
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jun 23, 2009 - 3:11:58pm

Verne Bury's car isn't going to make it to 100,000 miles after all.

The odometer was pretty close to that mark, Bury said, when her 1989 Chrysler New Yorker caught fire Tuesday afternoon, June 22.

Bury and her son were returning from a doctor's appointment and errands. They had just pulled into the entrance of A Better Place, a manufactured-home community in South DeLand where the family lives, when a fire started under the hood.

Bury, 89, and her son quickly parked and exited the vehicle; neither was injured.

The DeLand Fire Department was called to the scene; the engine compartment of the car was burning when two firefighting units arrived.

A man who lives at Hawthorne Hills mobile-home park next door stood outside and watched as firefighters worked to assure the fire was completely out. He said he had heard a "medium-sized" explosion and came outdoors to see flames shooting up from the vehicle about 4 feet.

The windshield of the four-door Chrysler appeared to have shattered in the fire.

Bury said the car had been acting funny as her son drove her to a doctor's appointment that morning. The doctor, she said, noted her blood pressure was a little high.

It's probably because my car stalled twice on the way here, she told him.

The vehicle continued to run badly while the pair went to pick up a prescription and headed home, Bury said. Finally, just as they were pulling into the community, the blaze started under the hood.

As firefighters packed up their gear, neighbors from A Better Place drifted out from their homes and walked to a drive near the entrance, where Bury stood with family members.

The neighbors, recognizing the destroyed vehicle, had come to make sure "Miss Verne" was OK, they said.

"She's a well-known, loved person in the park," a spokeswoman in the park office said. "She's been here for many years, and is well-respected. I'm so grateful no one was hurt."

She also said there was no damage to park property from the car fire.

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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