A car burst into flames near the entrance to the D6 parking lot Sunday, destroying the vehicle but leaving its two passengers unscathed.
Tawasha McKnight, 26, of Elkhart was driving north on Route 31 when she observed smoke coming from the back of her vehicle, St. Joseph County Police Cpl. Larry Kubsch said. After smoke began to seep into the vehicle, McKnight pulled the car over to the side of the road just before Dorr Road, the entrance to the Notre Dame campus, he said. McKnight and her sole passenger climbed safely out of the car shortly before it caught fire and exploded, Kubsch said.
Firefighters from the Clay Township Fire Department and the Notre Dame Fire Department responded to the scene to extinguish the fire, and St. Joseph County Police and Notre Dame Security/Police arrived to direct traffic, which was disrupted from 1:23 p.m., the time of the explosion, until about 2 p.m., Kubsch said.
The accident left a charred patch of grass but did no damage to the road.
cheining@nd.edu
