Jessica Rowe and her daughter Allegra were lucky to escape unharmed after their car burst into flames in Sydney on Thursday afternoon.
Rowe was outside her daughter’s school when her Volvo suddenly burst into flames on a major road, New South Head Road.
A school bus driver named Miev initially saw smoke “billowing” from underneath the Volvo XC 60 and “jumped out of his bus” to alert Rowe, urging her to get out of the vehicle.
Rowe and Allegra both fled and within minutes the car was completely engulfed in flames.
“Jess was saying to me earlier that if the school bus driver hadn’t jumped out of his bus and run over to Jess’ car and told them to get out right now it could have been a much more serious outcome,” Rowe’s manager, David Wilson, told news.com.au.
“The whole family is so very grateful to him for his quick action and courage. Approaching a car that was clearly in serious trouble meant he was also at risk of putting himself in harms way, and that’s amazing.”
Speaking about the incident this morning on KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O, Rowe revealed the bizarre item that she managed to grab from the vehicle before it went up in flames.
“I do like a costume … so I had a cat head in the boot,” Rowe told the radio duo. “Sometimes I like to embarrass my children. I pick them up and I put the cat head on. Luckily I could rescue that from the boot.”
Rowe’s husband Peter Overton was not happy when she told him she managed to grab the cat head costume.
“He said to me last night, ‘pussycat, that is not funny. Put it in the bin. You’re not keeping that,’” Rowe said.
Rowe took to Instagram last night to thank the kind school bus driver, Mev, who got us out of the car, called the fire brigade, cleared the road and then stayed to drive us home.”
She also thanked the police and paramedics and “the mums & dads who stopped to help”.
“We love you,” she wrote.
