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A huge number of vehicle fires are electrical in nature.

I've been a firefighter for ~10 years. Nearly every vehicle fire I've seen falls into one of three categories:

1) Deliberately set 2) Faulty/old/corroded wiring (by far the most common) 3) Some flammable material coming into contact with something really hot (commonly after an accident where a car has gone off the road into tall dry grass)

Fires due to the fuel tank failing are _extremely_ rare (I've never seen one, or even heard of one in neighboring areas).

It may be related to the fact that I'm in an area that uses lots of nasty stuff to deice roads, but corrosion is a major issue with vehicle electric system, and the older a vehicle is, the more likely it is to experience a 'spontaneous' fire.




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