Car Belonging to Wife of Del. Englin Catches Fire

Del. David Englin (D-45) was working from his Del Ray home on Wednesday afternoon when he received a knock on the door from his mail carrier.

Unfortunately the knock wasn’t an offer to chat or to hand the state delegate a package. Instead, the carrier was notifying Englin that his wife’s Ford Mustang was on fire.

“It was a pretty ugly scene,” Englin said.

With flames rising as high as six feet and temperatures outside touching the upper 90s, Englin went after the blaze with an extinguisher.

“I did what I could,” the U.S. Air Force Academy graduate said.

A neighbor dialed 911 and two Alexandria Fire Department vehicles soon arrived at the family's Wayne Street residence.

Englin commended the AFD for its quick work in putting out the fire. He said the cause of the blaze remains unknown and that no one was hurt and no property was damaged other than the vehicle.

Englin’s wife, Shayna, was out of the house when the car caught fire around 12:30 p.m. She had taken her husband's car to run some errands because, according to Englin, the Mustang had “recently been making some funny noises.”

Englin said he spent the remainder of the afternoon meeting with the Alexandria Police, finding a wrecking company to tow the car and going over insurance paperwork.

Around 4 p.m., Englin tweeted a photo of the burned vehicle with the message “Phew! Many thanks to Alexandria Fire Department for quick response to spontaneous combustion of Shayna's Mustang.”