A man had a lucky escape yesterday after his car caught fire and 'exploded'.

Rush hour traffic ground to a halt just before 9 a.m. after a blue Peugeot burst into flames at the junction of Spurling Hill and East Broadway.

The driver of the car, Kevin Burrows, said that he stepped out of the car after smoke started to pour from the vehicle.

"I was just past the gas station and I saw a little white smoke," said Mr. Burrows. "When I got closer to the Police officer directing traffic, the smoke got darker.

"When it started coming out of the glove box, I grabbed my laptop and I got out. Then she blew up."

While he escaped the vehicle uninjured, the car was called a write-off by Lt. Dana Lovell of the Bermuda Fire Service.

"We received a call at 8.57 a.m., and we arrived on the scene three minutes later," said Lt. Lovell. "When firefighters arrived, the vehicle was already fully involved, meaning it was completely covered in fire.

"We're looking at it being caused by a fault, although exactly what the fault was, we won't know until we take it back to the station and give it a better look."

Mr. Burrows said that he wasn't shaken, even after his car disappeared in flames in front of him.

"I'm a cool, collected kind of guy," he said. "If I'd been trapped in the car, I'd be thankful to be alive, but I wasn't. I saw something was wrong, and so I got out."