Women trapped in burning car

Published 6 Mar 2010 09:00 0 Comments

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TWO women were burned when the car they were sat in ignited into a "fireball".

They had been sat in the car in the Kensington Road car park in west Reading for around 20 minutes last night listening to music, when one of them lit a cigarette. But a ruptured fuel line meant the car was full of dangerous fumes and the naked flame caused a small explosion and set the whole car alight.

The passenger managed to escape the car and ran round to help her friend and got her out too, but both were burned by the flames on their hands and faces.

The fire from the burning Ford Fiesta spread to a nearby Citroen Saxo, damaging it as well as a third car which suffered more minor burn damage in the blaze at 10.15pm last night.

Watch manager Luke Coleman, of Dee Road fire station, said: "It was really quite a significant fire, because of the ruptured fuel tank meaning we had a running fuel fire. The occupants of the car were actually very lucky to get out of there. They hadn't noticed the fumes from the petrol when they lit the cigarette, so it produced quite a fireball."

The women in the car were taken to hospital. Police are not treating the fire as suspicious.

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