Tire Sidewall problems of the 1997 Mazda 626

Brand new set of 4 tires, fr440 (dot no. Hyrc4fb4703) p195/65r14 purchased from firestone in may 2005. Checked air and adjusted after 100 miles as advised, and monthly thereafter. July 13th, 3000 miles later, front driver-side tire blew, while doing 70 mph at 6am (not hot enough for tires to be too hot, only on road for approx. 7 minutes when it happened). Golf ball size holes in a pattern blown out half way around the tire on the sidewall, and can see the pattern continuing the rest of the way. Firestone replaced tire for $9 due to my road hazard purchase, but wouldn't cover the cost to get a new wheel, control arm, sway bar, axle, strut & strut mount. $500 worth of damage to my 97 Mazda 626lx; could've been more, but a friend, my boyfriend & myself did all of the work. A shop would have been much more costly. Firestone tennessee office "investigated" and blamed it "our inspection showed deformation and rim flange grooving. . . We did observe signs that the tire has been operated for an unkown period of time in an over-deflected state causing the detachment you experienced. " the first shop we took it to at the time of the incident advised us that it was a faulty tire and even though they'd sell us a new tire, to take it back to where we purchased it as the seller should be responsible; that if it was their tire, they'd replace the tire, wheel & pay for any other damage as a result. Wished I had bought my tires from them.