It definitely wasn’t the way he thought the day would go, but he is glad the outcome wasn’t far worse.
One minute, Karl Zwiers was driving his company vehicle up the Sea to Sky Highway after a meeting in Squamish and the next, the vehicle was in flames on the side of the highway.
The municipal infrastructure contractor, ZN Projects Ltd., is based in Squamish, but does a lot of work in Whistler and Pemberton.
It was July 30, and Zwiers was past Squamish, heading north in his 2024 Toyota Tacoma, with his son following in another truck behind him.
“All of a sudden, the truck starts to lose momentum,” Zwiers recalled.
“I noticed there was some sort of smoke and the lack of power, I thought, well, that’s kind of strange. And then the dashboard starts showing various alarms or alerts and just sort of craps out completely. And if I'm honest, hand on heart, I'm thinking, I can't be the guy who starts Cat Lake on fire. I can't be that guy.”
He pulled over to the clearest spot he could find and got out.
Soon, the truck, with company tools onboard, was engulfed in flames.
He said thanks to the actions of several individuals, this incident did not result in a forest fire like the one that happened in Peachland on the same day, which started from a truck fire.
His son pulled over, and other people started to pull over to help. He said there was someone with water, and his son was trying to put out a small grass fire that was starting nearby. Someone with a dump truck pulled over, too, to help with a fire extinguisher.
“There were other people, but I was concentrating on trying to remove whatever I could salvage from the truck. And at that point, there was someone from one of the towing companies who had wheeled around and blocked off the lane. There were lots of people doing lots of good things, never mind the fact that people are busy trying to make sure things didn't burn down,” he said.
Police and fire arrived shortly after.
Zwiers’ mind shifted to clients who might be impacted by what was lost in the truck.
“We had a client who was doing an expensive endeavour the following day, based on the fact that we would be there to install this component— [but] the necessary items were in the truck. So, as my truck’s on fire, I'm calling our suppliers, saying, ‘Hey, that stuff I picked up yesterday. Can you make it again?’ [They said] ‘Yep, yep, yep, no problem. We'll have it ready.’ There were some really, helpful individuals who had nothing to do with the fire, but they just jumped in and said, ‘Hey, we can help out.’”
Zwiers wanted to go public with his story to thank all those who lent him a hand.
The truck burned to a crisp, but there wasn’t a wildfire, thankfully.
Zwiers says he is still plodding through the sometimes frustrating aftermath of the vehicle fire with ICBC and hoping for answers from Toyota about what might have been wrong with the vehicle. He said he has another Toyota Tacoma that has been "perfect," so is confused about what went wrong with this one.
“It was bought last October. I had 32,000 kilometres on it,” he said, adding it had been recently taken in for routine servicing. “It was not modified or anything. It seems to me that where the flames were coming [from] was the side of the engine bay, where the battery and the fuse boxes are—it wasn't an EV or anything, it was just a regular gasoline vehicle,” he added.
“It was a brand new vehicle that burnt up. No one's been able to even give us any kind of inkling about that.”
For its part, Toyota told The Squamish Chief that it is waiting for an inspection of the vehicle before it moves forward.
“Toyota’s top priority is the safety of our customers, and this is a very unusual situation,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“We’re glad to hear that nobody was injured, and we thank the first responders for their work to prevent the fire from spreading. As soon as we were made aware of this case, we began the process of arranging an inspection of the vehicle. Until the inspection has taken place, it’s premature to draw any conclusions about the cause of the incident.”
Squamish Fire Rescue tips
Deputy Fire Chief Shaun Swerdfeger said that Squamish Fire Rescue responds to several vehicle fires throughout the year. However, they are not a common call type in comparison to others, he said.
Swerdfeger’s advice for anyone who finds themselves in a vehicle that starts on fire is to first pull over and get out of the vehicle to make sure that everyone is safe.
“When exiting the vehicle, please watch for oncoming traffic and other hazards on the roadways,” he said.
“People should stay a safe distance away and upwind where possible to avoid the smoke as vehicle fires are very toxic. Call 9-1-1 as soon as possible and ask for the fire department. You can attempt to extinguish the fire using a fire extinguisher if one is available, if safe to do so, as a fast extinguishment of the fire can improve the overall safety of the situation,” he added.
If the vehicle is an EV, Swerdfeger said electric car fires can be very dangerous at times due to the thermal output created during the fire, and a fire extinguisher may only have a limited impact.
“People should always put their safety and the safety of their passengers first. Calling 9-1-1 as soon as possible is key so that the fire department can quickly arrive on scene and address the vehicle fire,” he reiterated.
His advice for bystanders or passersby is to call 9-1-1, and keep an eye out for any hazards and try to prevent people from getting into harm's way when possible.
“Vehicle fires are very hazardous regardless of the vehicle type. It is vital that people call 9-1-1 and make room for the fire department to address the hazard as safely as possible.”
