A Dexter man who started his Chevy Impala with a remote starter got a surprise when he tried to leave for work Friday morning.
The car was on fire.
The Dexter Area Fire Department was dispatched to the man's home in the 3500 block of Oliver Drive a 7:43 a.m. for the vehicle fire, Lt. Michael Grissom said.
By the time fire crews arrived, the man had already put the fire out with an extinguisher. Firefighters then dismantled parts of the vehicle to make sure the fire hadn't spread.
Grissom said the Impala was parked in the street when the man used the remote starter on his keypad from inside the house to warm the car up. After a few minutes, the man left the house to go to work.
"(The car) was full of smoke and there were flames going up the kick-plate," Grissom said.
Fire officials think the remote starter, which was added to the vehicle after it left the factory, could be to blame for the electrical fire.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.