Driver escapes burning car

It was weeping and wailing for Leon Thompson when his car caught fire yesterday while he was driving along Marcus Garvey Drive some time after 8 a.m.

After noticing smoke at the front of the car, he pulled over to check what was wrong.

Within seconds, the car was being consumed by fire. Thompson, who was travelling alone, tried to extinguish the fire, but couldn't.

"Me caa all right! Me try out it but the fire more than me. Me lift up the bonnet and the fire weh lick me, me afi let it go," he told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Thompson, from Christiana, Manchester, says the car had been working perfectly all morning, so when he saw smoke coming from the bonnet, he was alarmed.

'A smoke me see'

"A nuh really fire me see enuh, a smoke me see. And because a peak hours, there was traffic, so me a try fi come cross and nuh block the road. When me pull over now, and fly the bonnet ... the first thing grip me is a ball of fire," he said.

Trying to save the Toyota Touring model car, he then ran to the trunk and grabbed a fire extinguisher. But, to his surprise, it was half empty.

"Is a man a pass on the road and stop and gimme fi him own (extinguisher). But dem time deh, the fire done get weh already. Dem time deh, it already start blaze and everything bun up. At one point, me a seh a better me did crash inna somebody bumper," he said.

Thompson held the car as a prized possession, so seeing it in ruins was heartbreaking. He says he's just happy the vehicle was insured.

"Me lay dung pon the ground a holler! When me see seh me caa do nothing more, me start holler! Me iPhone, me sound, car papers, money ... everything gone. Only thing me have issa likkle banger, cause the other phone did in a the car a charge. Me afi go call the insurance place," he said. "Me caa tell you a wah ... a just smoke me see. I have never had any problems like this with the car for years."