A TONGHAM woman had a lucky escape after her Vauxhall Astra spontaneously burst into flames on her driveway and threatened setting her home ablaze.

Jennifer Rout, 72, had just arrived home and turned her engine off in Field Way, off Manor Road, at around 5.30pm on Sunday, July 9, when she went to fetch something from her car and noticed smoke billowing from under the bonnet.

To her horror, the three-year-old Vauxhall then burst into flames which began to lick the front of her house and hedge.

She called the fire service and fortunately a crew from Farnham arrived in time to douse the blaze before it could spread fully to her home.

However, they could not prevent Jennifer’s Vauxhall and driveway being destroyed, while her bay window and guttering was also irreparably damaged, requiring hefty insurance claims.

In December 2015, Vauxhall recalled 226,000 Zafira model cars after a fire risk was identified, and just this April MPs on the Transport and Select Committee criticised the manufacturer for showing “a reckless disregard for safety”.

Vauxhall has so far denied that its Astra models are affected by the same fault as the Zafira, which relates to the thermal fuse in the people carrier’s blower resistor.

However, Jennifer has informed Vauxhall of her incident and the car manufacturer has vowed to investigate.

She told The Herald: "If you look on the web, there are so many cases of Vauxhall cars going up in flames. The damage to my car and home will hopefully all be covered by my insurance, but I strongly feel that Vauxhall have a case to answer for.

“I’m very lucky that my house didn’t burn down and the next time a car catches fire it could result in a fatality. I’ve honestly never been so scared in my life.”

A spokesman for Vauxhall said: “We are aware of this and conducted a full forensic investigation of the car yesterday [Tuesday]. There are many causes of vehicle fires and we await the conclusion of the report.”