Family recall lucky escape as they flee blazing Opel Zafira

As Opel continues to investigate fires in a number of its Zafira cars, a Cork man has recalled how his wife and three young children had to flee their vehicle when it went up in flames.

Peter Prout’s wife Avril and their then five, three and one year-old children were leaving the oldest child to school in September 2013 when smoke started coming from the air vents in Carrigaline. She pulled the car in and called her husband who was at work. However, when Peter got to their location less than 10 minutes later, fire had started in the passenger footwell and spread.

With the help of a passerby, Avril had managed to get the children from the car and get them a safe distance away. The blaze gutted the car.

The couple had only got their Zafira second-hand three weeks earlier. While engineers from the insurance company examined the vehicle, they were unable to determine the exact cause due to the extensive nature of the blaze.

Peter said: “We did not know Opel should be contacted. We didn’t know what was going to come out now.”

On Thursday, another Zafira went up in flames as it was about to board the Passage West to Cobh ferry.

It has been reported in Britain that up to 130 similar incidents have affected the Vauxhall equivalent.

Opel has said it is carrying out an investigation following reports of fire “in the area of the heating and ventilation system in a number of Opel Zafiras”. It has said the Zafira B model, launched in 2005, was affected.

It has also said its investigations to date have found that a number of incidents have occurred “due to previous repairs being performed improperly or using certain non-genuine parts”.

In relation to incident with the Prout’s car, it said: “We are not in a position to comment on individual cases to the media but will be focusing our attention on our investigation.”