A new account from metro Atlanta revives concerns about similar Mercedes SUV fires, but the automaker says an earlier inspected vehicle showed no product defect.
ATLANTA, GA — A Georgia man says he had only seconds to escape after his Mercedes-Benz SUV caught fire while he was driving in March 2025, adding new attention to similar complaints involving Mercedes SUVs even as the automaker says a separate inspected vehicle showed no defect.
Victor Anthony’s account, aired Friday by WSB-TV in Atlanta, lands in the middle of a wider dispute over whether a pattern of fires in some Mercedes sport utility vehicles points to a safety defect or to unrelated incidents. Anthony said his low-mileage 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 had no open recalls when he checked its vehicle identification number, and he said the company inspected the burned SUV months ago but never told him what it found. The report also revisited the case of Cobb County driver Amy Henry, whose 2017 GLS 450 caught fire in 2025. Mercedes later told Henry that her vehicle did not suffer from a product defect or malfunction.
Anthony told WSB-TV he was heading south toward his Fairburn home after work when he smelled smoke inside the SUV. He said he then saw a small fire on the passenger side near the door and tried to beat it down with his hat while steering across several lanes to reach a safer place to stop. The fire, he said, overtook the vehicle only moments after he pulled over near the 17th Street bridge in Atlanta. “Five to 10 seconds longer, I wouldn’t have made it,” Anthony said in the televised interview. The station reported that the fire happened in March 2025. Anthony said he contacted Mercedes-Benz and filed a complaint with federal regulators that same month. In May 2025, he said, Mercedes sent an inspector to examine the vehicle. Anthony told the station that he has not heard from the company since that inspection, a gap he said has left him without answers about what ignited the fire or whether other drivers face the same danger.
The new report built on earlier coverage centered on Henry, a Cobb County resident who said her 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 erupted in flames just minutes after she had been driving it into her doctor’s office parking area. Henry said there was no warning light and no sign that the SUV was about to ignite. According to WSB-TV, she reported the fire to police, federal regulators and Mercedes-Benz, which sent an investigator to review the incident. Nearly six months later, the station said, Mercedes wrote to Henry saying the SUV did not suffer from a product defect or malfunction. A Mercedes spokesperson told the station that the company conducted a thorough review, including an inspection of Henry’s vehicle, and did not find a defect. That statement is central to the company’s position in the story: at least in Henry’s case, the automaker says its examination did not support a manufacturing or design flaw. What Mercedes concluded about Anthony’s burned 2021 GLS 450 remains unknown based on the public record now available.
The backdrop to both cases is a federal recall that already covers a large group of later-model Mercedes GLE and GLS vehicles. In March 2024, Mercedes-Benz USA recalled 116,020 vehicles after the company determined that a 48-volt ground connection under the front passenger seat in certain 2019-2024 GLE and GLS models might not be properly secured. Federal recall documents say the connection could overheat and create a fire risk. Those same records say a driver might receive no warning before the problem occurs because of the failure mechanism. The recall population includes 2019-2023 GLS 450 vehicles, among several other trims and model years, and the remedy calls for dealers to inspect and tighten the connection if needed. That recall matters here because Anthony’s SUV is a 2021 GLS 450, the same model line named in the federal campaign. But WSB-TV reported that Anthony found no open recall on his specific VIN, and a VIN search can show no unrepaired recalls for a particular vehicle even when a broader model range has been subject to a campaign.
Henry’s SUV falls outside that recall, which helps explain why her case remains harder to place within an official defect finding. The 2017 GLS 450 is not among the vehicles listed in recall 24V-207, and WSB-TV reported that the component at issue in the later-model recall is not present in Henry’s vehicle. That leaves a gap between a documented, federally recognized fire risk in some newer GLE and GLS vehicles and the unexplained fires described by owners of similar but older SUVs. WSB-TV said it reviewed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records and found more than two dozen other drivers of similar Mercedes SUVs with accounts resembling those of Henry and Anthony. The station cited one Washington state family that said a fire in a same-model, same-year 2017 GLS 450 spread after the vehicle was pulled into a garage, leading to a total loss of the house. It also cited another owner of a 2016 model who said the front of the vehicle suddenly caught fire while the person was driving. Those reports do not by themselves establish a defect, but they do show why the issue continues to draw notice from consumer advocates and local investigators.
Michael Brooks of the Center for Auto Safety told WSB-TV that owners who experience fires or near-fires should file complaints with NHTSA so the agency has enough information to look for a broader pattern. That is a procedural step, not a finding. NHTSA reviews complaints, technical records and manufacturer data to decide whether a formal defect investigation is warranted, and complaints alone do not prove a safety defect. No new public federal action tied specifically to Henry’s 2017 SUV was cited in Friday’s report. Likewise, there was no indication in the report that Anthony’s March 2025 fire had led to a new recall, a defect petition outcome or a public investigative finding. Mercedes also had not responded to WSB-TV’s latest request for comment on Anthony’s case, the station said, leaving unresolved whether the company sees the 2021 fire as related to the existing 48-volt ground-connection recall, to another cause, or to something unique to Anthony’s vehicle. For now, the public record shows one inspected 2017 case in which Mercedes said it found no defect, one burned 2021 case still awaiting an explanation from the owner’s point of view, and a standing federal recall for many later GLE and GLS vehicles.
The story’s emotional force comes from how quickly the fires are said to have unfolded. Anthony described moving across traffic while trying to stamp out a small flame that, by his account, turned into a fully involved fire in seconds. Henry said her SUV gave her no signal before it ignited. Those descriptions line up with a detail in federal recall records for later GLS and GLE models, which state that a driver may receive no advance warning before the recalled failure mechanism occurs. But the overlap is not complete, and that is where the story now sits. Publicly available records support the existence of a Mercedes recall involving fire risk in many 2019-2024 GLE and GLS vehicles. They also support Mercedes’ statement that the company inspected Henry’s 2017 SUV and did not identify a product defect. What they do not yet show is whether the separate owner complaints involving older or individual SUVs point to one broader mechanical problem or to several different causes that happen to end the same way: a driver scrambling out as the vehicle burns.
As of Friday, the clearest next milestone is whether Mercedes or federal regulators say anything more about Anthony’s March 2025 fire or the cluster of similar complaints WSB-TV said it found. Until then, the case remains a mix of documented recall history, unresolved owner claims and one firm company statement that, in at least one examined vehicle, no defect was found.
Author note: Last updated April 10, 2026.