From:
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix.htm

PAGE SIX

By RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH and CHRIS WILSON

July 30, 2002 -- Hell-Car burns model's home

VERONICA Webb's eco-friendly electric car turned into a fire-spewing death
machine the other night, burning down her Key West house and killing her
beloved dog, Hercules.

Despite her long devotion to various green causes, the six-month pregnant
supermodel says she's through with electric cars after her Chrysler Gem
overloaded while charging late last Monday night, sending flames through her
air conditioning system and consuming everything in its wake.

"We got the car because it was supposed to be great for the environment, but
no one ever warns you how dangerous they are," Webb tells PAGE SIX's Ian
Spiegelman.

Firefighters who rushed to the scene told Webb that good intentions often
turn lovely homes into blazing death zones. "They said they see this kind of
thing with electric cars all the time," she says. "Electric cars and golf
carts are always overloading their chargers and burning up, but no one knows
about it."

Among the hidden dangers, Webb says, were four hidden high-powered
batteries. "There are four extra batteries that aren't shown in the [owner's
manual] diagram. They need to be serviced but you can't service them if you
don't even know that they're there."

Luckily, Webb was in New York shopping for baby furniture when the blaze
erupted, but her new husband, Wall Streeter turned amateur archaeologist
George Robb, was asleep in bed. He barely escaped with his life. "By the
time the fire department showed up, they didn't even go inside to look for
survivors because they assumed that anyone left inside was long dead. They
said George got out with 30 seconds to spare."

Her devoted long-haired dachshund, 8-year-old Hercules, was not so lucky.
"At first George called me saying Hercules had gotten out and was okay. Then
he started saying he was cold. He wasn't breathing. He couldn't survive in
that smoke."

Hercules, who had a cameo role in Ben Stiller's "Zoolander," might have
survived if Webb's Gem had been the only electronic device that
malfunctioned that night. "Our $4,000 fire alarm system never went off," she
says. "All of us blindly trust our fire detectors, and I would hate to see
this happen to anyone else."

Webb says that after her insurance company contacted Chrysler, the automaker
set up several appointments to inspect the wreckage, but never showed up and
never called to reschedule. A Chrysler spokesman did not return our calls.