NHTSA Complaint #11499914 — 2010 TOYOTA SIENNA

We recently had a full diagnostic check done on our vehicle (199 point at Parkway Automotive in Little Rock, Arkansas) that listed some components in need of repair. The only part involving the electrical system needing repair was our battery which was testing as no longer holding enough charge. We took the vehicle to Sam's Club in North Little Rock, AR within the last 2-3 weeks and had the battery replaced with a new Duracell with 3 year warranty. We drove away with no issues with the vehicle and used it for local driving without issues for those 2-3 weeks. The morning of Thursday, December 29, 2022 we started the car to drive to our church about 2 miles away with our four young children (1, 5, 8, 10). In the short drive, dash lights were flickering and the nav/audio screen system was turning off and restarting. Upon arrival at the church, as we were parking the car, gray smoke began to come from the hood quickly. The children were all still strapped in seatbelts and carseat, so we quickly unloaded them from the car and took them inside the building. While we were unloading them from the vehicle we observed the following: -black smoke pouring from driver's side hood -sparks falling on the ground from driver's side engine compartment, near bumper -spurts of fire coming from the hood and below the bumper on driver's side -charring and melting coming from the vents/lights where each child was seated in the 2nd and 3rd row seating After calling the fire department and locating a fire extinguisher, the fire quickly grew into an uncontrollable blaze so we all went inside the building as quickly as possible to avoid injury. Shortly thereafter, the battery itself seemed to explode (a loud explosion was heard and then a smaller one) and the driver windshield was blown. The fire was large enough to seem to be traveling toward the gas tank and we were afraid of a big disaster. The fire department then arrived and extinguished the fire and made a report.