Dad rings 999 over fire in taxi before finding out his daughter was inside
A man who dialled 999 to report that he saw a taxi on fire was shocked to discover just a few minutes later that his daughter had been inside.
Huddersfield resident Kevin Pollard was walking to work at 6:00am on 3 January when he spotted smoke and flames rising from a burning car, with the blaze easily visible in the darkness of the winter morning.
Kevin discovered the torched taxi burning on New Hey Road and called 999 to summon the fire brigade.
Knowing his daughter would be heading for work via the same route at some point, he called her up to warn her she should switch around her journey.
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However, Kevin then learned she'd actually been inside the burning car when smoke started rising from the bonnet.
Speaking to Yorkshire Live, Kevin said: "The whole front of the car was on fire. It was getting worse by the second.
"After that, I rang my daughter who I knew had to get to work early today to advise her to avoid going this way. And she told me she'd already left and had actually been in the taxi.
"Apparently the bonnet had started smoking, so the driver had pulled over to open it, and it had caught fire. So my daughter had to get out and got the bus to work instead.
"My daughter seems alright. It's the last thing you expect when you're going to work in the morning - she was setting off particularly early because of the train strikes so she needs to get a bus into Leeds."
Fortunately nobody was harmed in the fire, with Kevin able to speak to the taxi driver who had also placed a call to West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in the meantime.
Staying with the taxi driver until the emergency services arrived to douse the flames, he said it was lucky that the car 'didn't explode or anything'.
While nobody was harmed in the blaze as the driver pulled over when he spotted that his bonnet had started smoking, the car ended up being unsalvageable.
Considering it had developed a fault bad enough to burst into flames, it's probably for the best that nobody else ever got a ride in that particular taxi again.
Joe Harker