A CAR fire at Wycombe Sports Centre car park this morning could have been serious had it happened overnight, Bucks Fire and Rescue Service have said.

A Daewoo caught light and the smoking vehicle prompted a call to High Wycombe fire station.

Crews arrived at Handy Cross just before 11am to see smoke issuing from the bonnet and from the inside of the cab in the driver's compartment.

Crew Manager Rob Green said: “If it had parked up at night and nobody had noticed it it would have got worse and worse and potentially spread throughout the whole car.”

He said in that scenario it may even have led to other cars being caught alight.

The smoking car was parked about 100 metres from the sports centre door in the car park surrounded by other vehicles.

“It could have developed to a more serious fire,” he said.

Crew Manager Green said: “We found the cause was a little LED inspection lamp that had been left underneath the bonnet after, presumably, some work had been done on it and it was wedged between the fan and the exhaust manifold, which had obviously heated it up set alight and caught fire.

“The damage was minimal but quite often in the winter we get fires where people have put blankets over the engine to keep it warm and have driven off without removing them.”

At the time fire crews left the owner of the car had not returned and it was left with the management of the sports centre.