According to Fire Chief Dave McCoy, St. Clair officers were the first on the scene followed by CVFD and GVFD after receiving the call out at approximately 10:17 a.m.

McCoy said the owner of the vehicle had work done on the vehicle several weeks ago, and everything on the car had been running fine.

The owner told McCoy he was heading to the bank, and everything seemed fine until he pulled into the bank parking lot toward the drive through, the car stopped on his own and all the dash lights started to flash. Then the owner observed a small amount of smoke under the hood of the car.

The owner then got out of the car and opened the hood and observed fire coming up the back part of the engine compartment. He then closed the hood and immediately got his 3-month-old child out of the car.

Calcutta and Glenmoor firefighters work to extinguish a car fire at Chase Bank on Thursday morning. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

McCoy said the owner told him at that point he wasn’t paying attention to anything other than getting his child out of the car.

A female pulled into the lot next door and, seeing what was going on, stopped and allowed him to put the baby in her car to keep her warm. The female stayed on scene with the infant in the car until the owner’s wife arrived to pick them up.

The fire spread quickly from the engine to nearly engulfing the whole vehicle.

McCoy said when a fire burns that hot and fast, several things could have happened to cause the fire. Some of the possible causes he mentioned included a fuel line coming loose, a transmission coolant line or a brake line, something with an accelerant to cause it to burn so fast. The extent of the damage will make it impossible for the department to determine the exact cause.

McCoy said from the time the departments arrived on scene it took just a couple of minutes to knock the flames down to just smoke and then another four to five minutes to get the fire completely out.

A car was destroyed by fire at Chase Bank on Thursday morning. The driver was able to get out and get his 3-month-old daughter out safely before the fire spread from the engine to the interior of the car. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

Calcutta Towing assisted with clean up and towing the vehicle.