A SMART Car caught fire as it was being towed behind a campervan.

Richard Knight and Anne-Marie George were travelling along the Wessex Way in Bournemouth when they heard a noise and thought it was a plane before noticing the car had caught fire.

They quickly pulled over and Richard battled in vain to put the flames out with an extinguisher from the campervan and Anne-Marie screamed at him to get away from the flames.

Anne-Marie, 47, said: “We were travelling along and it caught fire.

“I was worried the flames would catch the campervan but Richard moved the van away from the car.”

“And I was screaming at him to get away from the car.

“It was scary so I was a bit shaken up.”

Firefighters were called to the northbound slip road close to the Fitness First sports centre at Queens Park at lunchtime yesterday to extinguish the fire.

Richard and Anne-Marie had spent the weekend at Swanage and were heading home to Hythe, near Southampton, when the car caught fire.
Richard, 52, said the fire was due to a mechanical fault.

He said: “We heard a noise coming from the car and it just sounded like a plane going over.”

He noticed smoke coming from the engine at the back of the car, where the engine is, and grabbed his fire extinguisher.

“I nearly stopped it but the extinguisher ran out,” he said.

A Dorset Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said firefighters used two breathing apparatus and foam to extinguish the blaze.

Traffic was directed around the Smart Car and nobody was injured.