Flame-juggler driver keeps her cool after Mini burst into flames on dual carriageway
A DRIVER kept her cool when her Mini burst into flames — thanks to her experience as a fire juggler.
Heather Holdcroft, 30, spotted a warning light as she did 70mph on a dual carriageway and pulled on to a side road.
She got out of her 2006 Mini Cooper when she saw smoke and because of her former job tossing paraffin-soaked flaming batons she knew she had only seconds to run clear of the car.
The BMW-built vehicle then exploded in a fireball and was left a wreck.
Heather said: “It’s a petrol car and, having worked with paraffin and fire, I knew it was a ticking time bomb. I was lucky to pull over so quickly and get out.
“I was in shock – I was on the phone to 999 and they were asking me where I was and I couldn’t tell them.
“The smoke was getting thicker and thicker and I couldn’t get away from the car as I was next to a busy road.”
“I am just so relieved I was not with my friend and her little boy as if he had been in the back, he wouldn’t have stood a chance of getting out in time.”
The sales worker, of Ramsgate, Kent, believes it may be linked to a 2012 recall of thousands of Minis over a potential fire risk.
But a Mini spokeswoman has denied her model was affected and said: “Ms Holdcroft’s insurer settled without contacting us.”
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