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PASSENGERS FLEE FROM TAXI DESTROYED BY FIRE
11:00 - 15 December 2004
A taxi driver and four passengers leapt for safety after their cab burst into flames. The taxi was in Thurlow Road, Torquay, when smoke seeped out from under the bonnet on Monday. Moments later the driver, Martin Kinloch, and his passengers escaped from the vehicle as the fire erupted.
"They got out OK. They were fine," Mr Kinloch said later. "The car just started smoking and then it was on fire. We got out smartish." Mr Kinloch, who works for the 213213 cab company added that his car was wrecked by the blaze. Two firefighters wearing breathing gear used a hose reel and jet to extinguish the flames.
A fire station spokesman said: "The fire was going well when we arrived. The damage was confined to under the bonnet. The tyres also popped in the heat."
The spokesman said the cause was not known but could have been an electrical fault or a leaking fuel tank: "There wasn't much to see under the bonnet afterwards."
The four local passengers, all said to be in their fifites or sixties, continued their journey after Mr Kinloch rang for a replacement cab. He faces a few days off the road during one of the peak times of the year.
"If I can get a hire car I could be back driving at the end of the week. It all depends on how long it takes to sort out the insurance," he said.
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if he rings chief he WILL be back on the road by the end of the week. if he waits around for his own insurance company, it wont be till after new year !!