Driver's lucky escape after Reliant Robin bursts into flames

A Reliant Robin similar to the one that caught fire

Firefighters were called to the car park at the Sainsbury’s store in Leigh at around 4pm today (Wednesday).

They found the car well ablaze and faced a race against time to stop the flames spreading to any other vehicles.

The shocked owner told the crew he had been driving out of a space when the car caught fire without warning. He immediately got out of the vehicle, which was completely destroyed by the blaze.

He was completely unhurt and no other vehicles were damaged, but the incident drew a small crowd to the scene.

Firefighter Suzanne Caulfield from Leigh fire station said: “It was pretty well alight as we were getting to it but luckily it didn’t spread to any other vehicles.

“He had literally moved about six feet out of the parking space when it just burst into flames. Reliant Robins aren’t made of metal so it just went up.

“We had to put the fire out quickly and then bumped it back into a space out of the way.”

One fire engine from Leigh station attended, with the crew spending around 25 minutes at the incident.