A WITNESS saw three women running from a kombi van that exploded in a fireball in Wallsend on Thursday.
NSW Fire and Rescue was called to the scene on Cowper Street just before 12.30pm. Two trucks used hoses and foam to extinguish the blaze over a 40-minute period.
"It was pretty major," a resident told the Newcastle Herald. "There was banging, glass flying up in the air."
The resident said he saw three women running from the van to safety.
Traffic was closed in both directions on the busy road for about half an hour. This was in addition to traffic delays on the New England and Pacific Highways as holiday-markers head north.
The blaze comes as NSW Fire and Rescue urges safety across summer. In Mayfield, two garbage truck fires in just a fortnight caused big clean-up jobs for firefighters.
"It is more common than people think," a spokesperson for NSW Fire and Rescue said at the time.
"It happens quite a lot across the state."
