A mother has told of the ‘dilemma’ which she had to face with her children after her car burst into flames while inside a lion enclosure. Helen Clements had been visiting Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire with her children, George aged 9 and Charlie aged 12, on Good Friday when their car overheated.
Photographs which have been posted on Twitter clearly show the car engulfed in flames inside the enclosure, which is home to 12 lions.
Speaking to the BBC Ms Clements said ‘I thought the car had overheated. Then basically, we thought: ‘No, that’s not steam, that’s actually smoke’. It was getting thicker and thicker and obviously coming into us, and then obviously we saw flames.’
Ms Clements, 43, from Kingswood, Gloucestershire, then began to sound the car’s horn to alert the rangers who managed to rescue the family and to clear the animals from the enclosure.
Ms Clements added ‘Unfortunately they were shouting to us: ‘Get back in the car, do not get out of the car’. It was a situation of - what do you do? Do you get out of the car because you’re on fire? And they’re telling you to get back in the car, so that was the dilemma.’
A spokesman for Longleat has said that the family were transferred to a ranger’s vehicle and that no-one was hurt.
The park was closed temporarily so that firefighters could tackle the fire.
A Longleat Safari Park spokesman said ‘On Friday April 18 at around 1pm, a car overheated in the first lion enclosure at Longleat Safari & Adventure Park. The occupants of the vehicle, a female and two children, were quickly picked up by rangers who transferred them into their vehicle and the fire service was called. The car subsequently caught fire after the guests had been escorted out of their car.
The lions were cleared from the enclosure and the safari park was closed. A route was cleared for the fire engine, which arrived quickly and extinguished the fire. In total the safari park was closed for 15 minutes.
No-one was injured in any way and no lions were hurt. The vehicle has now been safely removed and the safari park has fully reopened to visitors.’
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