Two Bassenthwaite-based Forestry Commission workers were hailed as lifesavers after helping a couple flee their car just minutes before it was destroyed in a ball of flames.
Great-grandparents John and Isabel Brown were heading south on the M6 near Penrith when he alerted his wife to an apparent mechanical problem with their Ford Focus.
Isabel, aged 70, said: “There was then a small explosion. Fortunately we were in the inside lane. John got on to the hard shoulder and we were just limping along in the car.”
Help was at hand, however, from passing driver Alex Baines and his passenger Dan Pons.
They are based at the Forestry Commission’s Peil Wyke base, Bassenthwaite, where Dan, a wildlife ranger, also lives.
Alex, aged 24, a forest work supervisor from Great Clifton, said: “We saw the car smoking quite heavily on the hard shoulder. As we went past we looked in our rear view mirror and saw that the front of the car was on fire.
“So we pulled in. I jumped out and flagged them down. I said ‘you need to stop, your car’s on fire’. And they were like ‘we’re just trying to get to the garage in Penrith’. I said ‘no, you need to stop, your car’s on fire!’.
“So they stopped and got out of the car and managed to get to safety. And literally two minutes after that, the whole thing was in flames. Pretty shocking, really.”
Alex added: “I had said to Dan that we’d stop because if something like that happened to me I’d want someone to stop. It’s just what you do.”
Isabel said of the fire: “We hadn’t realised, so we got out of the car, climbed over the barrier, got as far away as possible and within minutes it was just a balls of flames.
The Carlisle couple’s overnight belongings went up in smoke, while John also lost spectacles and Isabel an antique locket gift from her great uncle.
“We were just shaken. We couldn’t believe it, it was surreal, you can’t explain it. You see it happening to other people. You never think it’s going to happen to you,” she said.
“We were absolutely fine. We hadn’t a scratch on us, not a scratch. If they hadn’t stopped us we might not have got out the car just quite as quickly.”
Isabel, who also praised the emergency services, added: “We told the two lads ‘you’ve actually saved our lives’ because if we hadn’t have got out at that instant I think we would have probably got burned; that would have been the best of the scenarios — it could have been a lot worse.”
She agreed the pair were heroes, adding: “They were absolutely fantastic, Good Samaritans, certainly. They were just so unassuming and helpful.”
John, aged 73, said the fire’s cause was still a mystery, adding: “If we hadn’t have got out I dread to think what would have happened a minute or two later.”