Car bursts into flames after driver uses cigarette lighter to find fuel cap

A Russian driver started a massive blaze at a fuel station because he thought it was a good idea to try and find the petrol cap by using a lighter. 

CCTV footage from the station at Sredneuralsk in the country’s Sverdlovsk region shows the driver using the lighter as he fumbles for the petrol cap, which immediately set off a huge flame. 

He then rushed to evacuate passengers from his vehicle. 

An adult and a young child, who appeared to have been sitting near to the ignited fuel source, can then be seen getting out of the car. 

The man then gets back into the burning vehicle and attempts to move it away from the pump, which by this point has also caught fire. 

Local reports state the man then stopped the car and with the help of filling station staff used fire extinguishers to put out the flames. 

They are said to have also attempted to shovel sand onto the blaze, which had been put out by the time emergency services arrived.

There are not understood to have been any casualties and the driver has not been identified. 

It’s the second story of a fire breaking out at a Russian petrol station so far this year. 

Earlier in August, a huge explosion rocked the outskirts of Makhachkala, in the southern republic of Dagestan. 

More than 30 people were killed and 105 injured – with many airlifted to hospitals in Moscow, over 1,000 miles away – after a fire started at a nearby car garage and in turn spread to the petrol station.