A car suddenly burst into flames in the rural village of Niton late last night (Tuesday), leading to a call out for 2 fire crews.
Residents dialled 999 at just before 21:30 when they sighted an inferno on Pan Lane, off Church Road.
Hose reels were used to douse the flames and bring the situation under control but little remains of the Citroen Xsara Picasso.
The fireball took hold of a nearby hedge and even melted plastic road bollards prior to the arrival of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service appliances from Ventnor and Newport – but thankfully didn’t take hold of a newly installed wooden fence.
Island Echo is told that ‘banging noises’ were heard and fluid was seen leaking from the Citroen prior to the fire breaking out. The vehicle had been parked on the lane for around 5 days.
The exact cause of the blaze is unknown but appears to have begun at the front of the car.
The vehicle has been left in situ with debris strewn across the carriageway, leaving the road inaccessible.
Island Roads has been notified of the damage to the road furniture and carriageway.
UPDATE Thursday – The vehicle has now been recovered.
Handy reminder that irt isn’t just electirc cars that catch fire!
If it were an EV it would still be burning…
Anything can catch fire if you have insurance
Indeed! Could also certainly be an insurance scam!
This is another lump of French rubbish off the road, should send it back to France where it belongs….
Vauxhall is French owned now, would you send them to France?
That’s like saying, if BMW sold to France would it be a French car, idiot…
“…‘banging noises’ were heard and fluid was seen leaking from the Citroen prior to the fire breaking out. The vehicle had been parked on the lane for around 5 days.”
Strange that a vehicle parked illegally for 5 days should suddenly catch fire spontaneously. Yeah right and there are fairies at the end of my garden too 😉
Haha true! Although, with what is being described, sounds like it could be an electrical or mechanical failure! It’s quite common for older model cars like that to have electrical faults within the engine bay which could’ve played a part! The fire investigation teams will figure it out in any case so it’ll be interesting to find out!
Better watch your car then because it was definitely Niton fairies that was responsible for this.♀️♀️♀️
There is an illegal vehicle with NO MOT parked along Great Preston Road in Ryde
That’s a Citroen Berlingo van
set in on fire then, worked for this one in niton.
Another petrol car up in flames! What is happening? Look at it, nothing left. Should be banned from all ferries!!!
From the US National Transportation Safety Board, battery-powered EVs suffer only 25 fires per 100,000 sold, compared to 1,530 for petrol or diesel vehicles. That is 60 times more! Your petrol or diesel vehicle is 60 times more likely to go up in flames. And that is FACT! Petrol or diesel cars must be banned from the ferries for safety!!!
EV’s far more dangerous with fires than any liquid fuel vehicle. Ask any fireman. On a regular liquid fuel fire, you typically need between 500 – 1,000 gallons of water to put it out, sometimes even less if you get there early, an EV can take up to 33,000 gallons of water to put out the fire, where it then needs to be taken to a special facility to then be submerged in special liquids to stabilise the batteries so they don’t then burst back into flames. A key point to this is the car carrier ferry of the Dutch coast. Regular fuel can easily be put out with fire suppression systems, foam and sea water. 1 EV burst into flames, a crew member died, all the rest jumped into the ocean to survive, over 4k cars lost, ship lost, EV’s are FAR worse.
I fear your preaching to the newly converted … obviously drives an EV but back in the day would never have suggested that his petrol car was dangerous … you cant beat a good hyprocrite
Because you actually did that, didn’t you, asked a firefighter, I mean?
That’s a rhetorical question, by the way, because we all know you are just spouting nonsense.
Whereas the figures quoted by “fready” are provable facts.
So get back under your bridge.
Fake news about that ferry. But like many you have allowed negative press to think for you as so threatened by a car that’s not got an exhaust.
You expect too much of this crowd sometimes fready. They need more context spelling out.
It isn’t a “crowd”. It’s one of two regular trolls posting under multiple names (because Island Echo does nothing to verify who is posting).
Then you must be the other troll if there are only two posters on here! But who am I because I am not you or fready? Or are we all one and the same. I have lost all grip on reality. Maybe we are just holograms. Mindf*cker.
What the hell are you talking about idiot.What does the ferry run on fresh air and we live in England not us
Yeah but electric cars are crap
Pitchforker locals torch car because they don’t want anyone parking. Nice.
That’s another electric car fire how many is that on the island now ?
Wow, London based car instantaneously combusts in remote lane on IOW! A proper mystery for sure. Be interesting to know who reported to Island Echo that ‘banging noises’ were heard and fluid was seen leaking from the Citroen prior to the fire”, given how remote the lane was. Is there a police investigation at all? Just asking.
The lane the car is on is one of the most popular bridleways on the island, many people go up there, not remote at all. No idea about any police investigations but with any fire, the fire service will investigate the possible cause and report their findings to the police so its possible that there’s an investigation!
What makes you think it’s a “london based car”? Licence plate is melted so can’t look anything up!
Why do you think it’s a “london based car”? There’s also no mention here that it “instantaneously combusts”, infact if there was noises and leakage before the fire, it could’ve started small and slow and worked its way into a bigger fire.
Work of local inbreeds who don’t like strangers.