Greenwell Point resident Ryan Byrne had just completed some shopping and was driving his mother’s Ford Festiva near the northern end of Kinghorne Street when he noticed smoke billowing from the car.

He managed to do a U turn and parked the car outside the Aldi Supermarket.

 Quick thinking Aldi staff, led by Carol Carroll, saw the car on fire and raced to the scene with fire extinguishers and attempted to extinguish the blaze.

Fire and Rescue NSW crews attended the scene and completed putting the fire out but despite the quick response the car suffered considerable damage to both the engine bay and the interior.

 “I just saw all this smoke coming out from under the bonnet and managed to turn around and park the car and get out before the fire took hold,” said a shaken Mr Byrne.

“It all happened so quickly.”

Kinghorne Street was closed for about 30 minutes. Nobody was injured.