Former Pop Star Escapes From Car Fire and Tweets Video of Aftermath

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    Although Twitter may be full of mindless memes and ignorant banter, sometimes its users can provide cautionary tales on safety for others.

    Such was the case of Danny Foster, a former member of the pop group Hear’Say, who allegedly escaped from a burning car with his life in London this past weekend, reports The Daily Mail.

    A portion of the incident, specifically the aftermath, was captured on what appears to be a cellphone camera. The video is only 20 seconds long, but it shows a car engulfed in raging flames, an ambulance, and fire personnel all in the surrounding area. Foster posted the video along with the following message to his Twitter timeline on Sunday, Nov. 29.

    “SHOCKED!! I was a passenger! Vauxhall Zafira Fire – Are you safe? @VauxhallCustSvc THIS MUST STOP! – Please RT Dx.”

    Fortunately, no injuries were reported from Foster or anyone involved at the time of this writing. Support quickly flooded in from fans and even former group member Kym Marsh.

    The car in question was a Vauxhall Zafira. While no official reports have indicated exactly what the cause of this particular incident was, the car company has reportedly already written more than 220,000 other owners of Zafiras to have their heating and ventilation systems inspected.

    The official Vauxhall Customer Service account, @VauxhallCustSvc, even joined in on the social media coverage by tweeting at Foster:

    “Hi Danny, I’m extremely sorry to see this! Please can you DM me your contact details and your VIN/REG, so I can help? -Kerryn.”

    The incident is the most recent of a disturbing trend that’s become more common over the last year. Since 2013, there have been 71 cases of cars bursting into flames (excluding arson attacks) compared to the previous four years where there were just 38, according to the London Fire Brigade.

    According to the car manufacturer, they believe the problem stems from “improper repair” of a thermal fuse in the heater fan that protects the system. A thermal fuse is a cutoff which uses a one-time fusible link. The thermal fuse is sort of like an electrical fuse: a single-use device that cannot be reset and must be replaced when it fails or is triggered, unlike a thermal switch which may automatically reset itself when the temperature drops.

    “While the number of incidents is very low in proportion to the number of vehicles on the road, we take this issue very seriously and will take further action,” a Vauxhall spokesperson said.

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