Northwest Will Be Last For Replacement

Unless they want to shell out the money themselves, Washington and Idaho residents owning recalled Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires will be waiting quite a while before they can get their tires replaced.

Since heat is the prime culprit compromising the tires, they will be replaced in Southern states first. Firestone tire owners in the Northwest probably won’t be able to take advantage of the recall until 2001 and may have to wait as long as 18 months before they will be able to exchange their tires.

California, Texas and Arizona residents will be taken care of in the first phase of the recall, which is expected to be completed by October.

Seven other Southern states - Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma and Tennessee - are covered in the second phase which should be finished by the end of the year.

Some local Firestone tire owners, however, may have decided to take care of replacing the recalled tires themselves or to have their tires inspected.

On Wednesday, more than a dozen Ford Explorers with recalled tires were parked in the parking lot at the Firestone tire center at Third and McClellan.

The store manager wouldn’t comment about the recall, but acknowledged that he had been receiving calls from customers with questions about it throughout the day.

Much of the day, callers received a busy signal at both of the local Firestone Tire outlets and the national 800 number set up to field consumer questions.