Wow.. you got lucky.. I've experienced a car going up in flames.. was not fun.. Wife's car evidently had a TSB for the fuel line.. Well it wound up rubbing against the access value for the AC lines.. She kept on complaining about smelling gas.. I went to her work to take a look at it(had a 5 month old at the time.. so didn't want her to drive it anymore then necessary). Anyways.. I popped the hood.. looked everything over.. all looked good.. so while the hood was open.. I reached into the car via the driver window and cranked her up.. I looked back to the engine, and started to see gas spewing, almost in a mist form... In the 2 seconds that I saw that and reached in to turn off the car.. it ignited..

Was very scary.. luckily a contract construction worker was walking by and saw it ignite.. He immediately ran for a garden hose(near by) and started to soak the engine bay.. I got to my car mechanic.. told him the story.. and he was like.. "You should have fanned the flames.. that way you could have gotten a new car.." I wound up keeping that PT Cruiser for another 4 years...