These horror images show the aftermath of a fire that wrecked a car after it burst into flames as a pregnant mother was driving her children to school.
Courageous mother-of-six Hayley Honeysett, 33, steered her flaming car away from other traffic before escaping the inferno with her children.
She was en-route to school with four of her children when to her horror flames started leaping from the heater vents on her car.
But despite the flames quick-thinking Hayley steered her car away from fellow drivers queuing near a busy junction.
Hayley said: “All of a sudden there was fire and smoke coming out right in front of me and within seconds I couldn’t see.
“There were cars either side of me, all I could think was to try to get the car away from them.
“I had to open the door to see where I was going.”
The mother-of-seven, who is eight-and-a-half-months pregnant, managed to find a safe place and immediately pulled-up.
She said: “I was screaming at my teenage daughter, who was sitting next to me, to help get the children out.
“It was very frightening. All you can think is about making sure everyone is safe.”
Miraculously, everyone escaped the fire without any major injuries but Hayley did bruise her knee jumping back into the flaming car to put the handbrake on.
She said: “The road I had turned into was on a hill and I did not want the car to roll back downhill.
“By the time we had all got out the whole car was on fire – it was just so fast.
“While I was dealing with the situation my adrenaline was going but when I got to the other side of the road and saw how black the car was I was in tears.
“I phoned my husband and he told me to calm down because he was worried I would go into labour early from the panic.”
Hayley, of Thornton, Lancs., who is married to finance worker Martin, 34, has no idea what caused the Ford S-Max to catch alight.
A bystander alerted firefighters to the blaze who told Hayley that if she had not moved the car away from the junction the fire might have taken out seven or eight others.
She said: “It wasn’t an old car and we’d never had any problems.
“It was a real shock, there was no suggestion anything was wrong.”
Hayley was in the car with eldest daughter Ellie Whittaker, 17 and her three youngest children Evie Honeysett, 2, Maddison Honeysett, 4, and Rowan Honeysett, 7.
Amazingly, despite the drama, all of Hayley’s youngsters made it to class on time.
She said: “I don’t know how but we even managed to get all of their bags out.
“Ellie took them over to school and I stayed to try to sort things out.
“They even made it in on time.
A Lancashire Fire and Rescue service spokesman said: “We used two hose reels to put out the fire which we believe started as a result of a fault.
“Hopefully most people will never experience a vehicle fire. Anyone who notices any signs of fire should obviously get out of the car as soon as possible.
“Remove yourself and your passengers to a safe distance.”
