“I’m just grateful that she has her life”: Sister of woman injured in northwest Charlotte car explosion shares update
Security camera footage from the home next door catches a loud boom that blew out the car’s windows and sent a woman inside scrambling out of the vehicle.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - One person was rushed to the hospital with serious burns after a fire in northwest Charlotte Monday afternoon, officials said.
It happened along Wandering Creek Drive near Pleasant Grove Road.
Family told WBTV that Rashanda Broome is recovering from third degree burns after her car went up in flames.
Investigators determined that the fire started after she lit a cigarette inside the vehicle where a propane tank was being stored. The vapors caught fire when the cigarette was lit.
Security camera footage from the home next door catches a loud boom that blew out the car’s windows and sent Broome scrambling out of the vehicle.
Flames engulfed the interior of the car, burning through the windshield and the roof.
The car was obliterated, and parts of the home’s roof and garage were charred.
“The windows were up and everything and it just, ‘boom,’” next-door neighbor Diego Ledbetter, who shared his security camera footage with WBTV, said.
Broome’s sister, Amanda Linder, said she’s thankful her sister will be okay.
“I’m just grateful that she has her life and the children are fine,” Linder said. “Everybody is fine. She just has to have some healing to do.”
Linder says Broome has third degree burns from her shoulders down.
“She’s just very emotional about everything that happened, you know, to lose everything and a blinking of an eye,” she said. “That was just very traumatizing to the whole entire family.”
Neighbors had questions about the response time, with a Charlotte Fire station only five minutes away.
Charlotte Fire explained when the 911 call comes in, the county dispatches based on jurisdiction. In this case, the Cooks Fire Department was called to respond.
However, a neighbor called the nearby Charlotte Fire station directly, and they got to the scene within a minute.
Charlotte Fire explains that’s typical. Even if another department is on their way, if they see or hear that there is an emergency, they just go and figure out logistics later.
Broome’s family set up a GoFundMe page to support her in her road to recovery. To donate, click here.
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