Ref. 25705-55SWELTERING conditions contributed to this car fire.

Firefighters from Swin-don were called to Upham Road where the driver of the Vauxhall Astra had pulled in off the road.

Eyewitnesses said the woman driver leapt out of the Vauxhall Astra and ran along the street in search of a bucket of water to throw on her smouldering engine.

But seconds later it caught fire and exploded setting fire to a nearby hedge.

Firefighters had the small blaze under control yesterday afternoon and the woman, who was shaken but unhurt, was taken to the Great Western Hospital as a precaution.

A Queens Drive resident who saw the incident, but did not wish to be named, said: "Never in my life have I seen anything like that there was smoke everywhere.

"The woman was running along the road trying to get a bucket of water. When she pulled off the main road it was more or less just smoke, but it quickly developed into a small fire."