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PSA: Parking Your Hot Car on Huge Leaf Piles Could Start a Fire

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Here’s a quick refresher on how cars react when they run: they get hot. Really hot. Some might even say burning hot.

Here’s a refresher on how dry leaves react to hot things: they catch on fire. Some might say they burn.


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So, apparently a few people had not really put together these disparate facts, as the St. Louis Fire Department pointed out in a tweet. Apparently, a driver left their vehicle running over a large pile of leaves (it seems that in St. Louis, people generally rake their leaves into the street for the city to collect), which then predictably caught fire.

It seems that this is far from the first year that this is a problem, as the Fire Department post included the hashtag #ThrowbackPost and a screen shot of an older tweet, showing a vehicle also burned by parking on leaves.


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Some other tweets about the problem included photos where you can see a minivan burning due to parking on leaves.

So, as we continue to transition from fall to winter, please keep in mind the effects that your car has on its immediate environment, and don’t park on anything flammable—particularly big piles of leaves.

News Sources: Riverfront TimesSt. Louis Fire Department via Twitter