Toys ‘R’ Us pulls Tonka truck after "shocking" fire
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Toys ‘R’ Us has pulled a Tonka toy dump truck model, after a Washington state couple had one of the toys burst into flames in the back of their vehicle.
CBS New York reports Roxsane and Delmond Harden of Bellingham, Washington were in their Ford Ranger when the fire erupted in the bed of the pickup truck.
“Sparks and smoke coming from inside of the box, like fire,” Roxsane Harden said. “Like, it was hot.”
They had just returned from Toys ‘R’ Us, where they bought this 12-volt Tonka Mighty Wheels dump truck for their grandson when they realized it was on fire.
“I said: ‘We’ve got to pull over. We’ve got to get out of this truck,’” Roxsane Harden said. “So we pulled over. Flames start shooting.”
The flames were so intense and so stubborn even the fire extinguisher from state troopers couldn’t douse them.
“The officer, when he looked on, he said the flames appeared to be 15, 20 feet high,’” Delmond Harden said. “It was pretty shocking.”
“So they told me to get whatever I needed out of the car, like my purse,” said Roxsane Harden. “So I’m in the back grabbing my purse and stuff and as I’m leaning over, I hear, ’Pop!’ and all this glass shattered in front of me. And then there was smoke and dust inside.”
They had to call the fire department to put the fire out, and soon all that was left of the truck was a charred husk.
Based on the incident, Toys ‘R’ Us said it will not sell the toy truck to anyone else while it investigates.
“That is the way to go. Good for Toys ‘R’ Us,” said Delmond Harden. “That is perfect, because the biggest shopping day of the year is coming up.”
Toys ‘R’ Us said in a statement: “Although this appears to be an isolated incident, out of an abundance of caution we are implementing a stop-sale and pulling the item from our stores and Toysrus.com pending further investigation. In the meantime, we are working closely with Dynacraft, the manufacturer, to determine the cause.”