VEHICLE fires may not be a particularly uncommon occurrence in Peterborough, but it is certainly not every day that a 195mph, £75,000 Lamborghini Gallardo sports car goes up in flames before your eyes.
But that is exactly what happened in the city centre on Friday night when a Lamborghini Gallardo – one of fewer than 400 in the country – caught fire close to a busy nightclub.
According to eyewitnesses, the bright orange supercar pulled up outside the Natural England offices in Northminster at about 8pm with smoke billowing from its engine.
Two men were seen to jump out of the vehicle – a 2005 model worth about £75,000 – before dashing off to find a fire extinguisher and call 999.
By the time firefighters arrived just minutes later, a huge crowd had gathered from the area's pubs and bars and people watched in amazement while they battled the blaze.
More on this story:
Lamborghini Gallardo fire: from Lambo to flambé - owner tells of horror, 7 July 2009.-----------------
Colin Jeffery, assistant manager of the nearby Solstice bar, was among the onlookers.
He said: "It was engulfed in flames and was there were loud popping noises all over the place as the windows and the tyres exploded. There was no end of people gathered round, something like 150 people. A lot of them were stood there filming it on their mobile phones.
"It's nothing new to see a car on fire but to see a Lamborghini in flames is something else altogether. It was an unbelievable sight, to be honest. Quite surreal."
Five firefighters from the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade spent about 20 minutes bringing the intense blaze under control. The cause of the fire is not yet known, although the car was removed from the scene by police who have begun an investigation.
Chief volunteer fire officer Tony De Matteis said: "It was a bit of an unusual one for us because it was quite different from the usual Fiestas or Escorts that we get called to.
"Quite often you get explosions with burning cars which makes it difficult for us to get close enough to fight the fire. In this case it was the tyres and the shock absorbers in the suspension that were going.
"This one was made worse for us because there is so much carbon fibre and alloy construction with high-performance cars, which makes it more of an intense fire than a standard car."
According to Antony Hawkes, the chairman of Lamborghini Club UK, there are only 5,000 to 6,000 Gallardos in existence and only a few hundred on the road in Britain.
Brand new, the supercars sell for between £115,000 and £130,000, while second-hand prices usually start from around £70,000.
Mr Hawkes said: "It's heartbreaking for whoever owns it and looking at the pictures of it burned out is quite a distressing sight."
Related links:
More about the Lamborghini Gallardo - Wikipedia.
