'All of a sudden I started smelling smoke': Woman recounts escaping from burning vehicle on Hwy. 401
A 32-year-old Hamilton woman says she is lucky to be alive after her car randomly caught fire while she was driving on Highway 401 last weekend.
Jamie Lee Kerri-Mitchell said that she had no idea there was anything amiss in the minutes before her vehicle went up in flames on the highway near Hamilton at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Video footage obtained by CTV News Toronto shows flames billowing from Kerri-Mitchell’s 2017 Hyundai Elantra moments after she escaped, with the help of an off-duty police officer and their wife.
“Everything was fine and I had just come off the off-ramp but then… I heard someone honk at me,” she recalled in an interview with CTV News Toronto on Monday.
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
The mother of three said she initially thought they honked because she was driving too slowly and she proceeded to move over to the slow lane.
“All of a sudden I started smelling smoke,” she said. “My car within seconds just filled with black smoke and then I started feeling dizzy and my throat starting hurting.”
At that point, she said, she realized something was very wrong and proceeded to put on her four-ways and pull over to the shoulder of the road.
“(I) just remember sitting there for a second being like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s happening?’”
“I was like in a state of shock. I didn’t know should I run? Should I stay? Is it big? Everything was just like going at once and then everything went blank.”
At one point, she said she began to feel heat underneath her feet.
“I did not expect the car to already be on fire,” she said, adding that she then noticed woman and a man, who she later learned was an off-duty police officer, running toward her vehicle.
“I didn’t want to go through the driver’s side because there were so many vehicles that were going high speeds so I thought I’d get out of the passenger’s (side).”
She said just as she was stumbling out of the passenger’s side door, the off-duty officer and his wife had arrived to help.
“I looked down and the whole bottom of my car is on fire… They grab me and they start running back,” Kerri-Mitchell said.
Within 30 seconds the car was fully engulfed in flames, she said.
“You could see the tires exploding, the battery exploding,” she said. “The car was just a crisp. There was nothing left.”
After speaking to witnesses, Kerri-Mitchell said she later learned that her car was on fire while she was on the ramp.
“The car underneath was on fire dripping plastic and that is why people I guess were honking, trying to warn me,” she said. “But I had no sign. I had no idea. I didn’t see smoke. My car was driving fine.”
She said she is grateful to those who tried to alert her to the fire, particularly the off-duty officer and his wife, who also had children in their car at the time of the incident.
“I want to thank them for coming and saving me and trying to warn me,” she said tearfully.
“If I would have been in there… I wouldn’t have made it and my kids would not have a mom.”
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Sean Leathong
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada Post strike: Union 'extremely disappointed' in latest offer, negotiator says
A negotiator for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says the latest offer from Canada Post to end the ongoing strike shows the carrier is moving in the "opposite direction."
'Shameful': Monument honouring fallen soldiers included names of living veterans
Veterans are asking for answers after discovering that two sculptures in Ontario honouring fallen soldiers include the names of many people who are very much alive.
Canada's air force took video of object shot down over Yukon, updated image released
The Canadian military has released more details and an updated image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023.
Invasive species could be hiding in your Christmas decor. Here's how to stop the spread
Make sure to look through your holiday decorations, as Christmas trees, wreaths, and other natural decor can have invasive insects, eggs, and plants that pose a threat to local ecosystems and the economy.
Northern Ontario man sentenced for killing his dog
WARNING: This article contains graphic details of animal abuse which may be upsetting to some readers. A 40-year-old northern Ontario man is avoiding prison after pleading guilty to killing his dog earlier this year.
80-year-old driver with expired licence accused of going nearly double the speed limit in eastern Ontario
Ontario Provincial Police say a man caught stunt driving on Highway 37 near Tweed, Ont. Thursday was 80 years old, and his licence was expired.
Three people taken to hospital after triple shooting in downtown Toronto
Toronto Police are on the scene of shooting that has sent three people to the hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The mysterious, mathematical origins of the world's most unusually shaped national flag
It's a go-to question at bar trivia: what is the only national flag in the world that isn't rectangular or square shaped?
This watch was carved from a meteorite that hit Earth a million years ago
A new watch from design duo Toledano & Chan has been carved from a meteorite that slammed into Earth around one million years ago.