Ex FIVEAA host Jeremy Cordeaux grateful to be alive after 1954 Sunbeam Talbot goes up in flames

The broadcaster got the shock of his life when his 1954 collector’s item suddenly caught fire over the weekend.

Jeremy Cordeaux sitting in his garage with his prized cars. Picture: Matt Turner (File)

A classic car worth close to $100,000 owned by talk back radio legend Jeremy Cordeaux has gone up in flames over the weekend.

The 1954 Sunbeam Talbot suddenly caught fire late Saturday afternoon at the former FIVEAA host’s Glen Osmond home.

Mr Cordeaux, who had just checked on the car along with five others earlier, was outside the garage when his son noticed smoke, and sprung into action.

“I was facing the street, he was facing the garage and he said that there’s been a lot of smoke coming out of that car,” he said.

“I said it was probably chokes been on too long, I’ll fix it, I turned around and that wasn’t smoke coming from the exhaust, that was smoke coming out of the interior.

“So what I did was I put my hand in quickly – I could feel the heat – to turn off the ignition then I went around to the front of the bonnet, which was up, and I disconnected the battery.

“And I thought that would stop whatever was wrong but it didn’t.”

Mr Cordeaux then attempted to put out the fire with a garden hose before pushing the car outside to prevent the fire spreading.

The fire is believed to have started in the car's cockpit. Picture: 9News

“If that fire got worse and spread to the fuel line or fuel tank, the whole section of the house would go up so I had to get it out of the garage somehow,” he said.

“There was so much heat and smoke in there you couldn’t really see what you were doing, you had to do it by feel.

“I couldn’t (move) it myself, my neighbour came running across the road and we by that time were trying to manhandle the car out of the garage, just push it back out to the forecourt.

“And the fire brigade arrived and so did the police too, so we basically all got together and between six of us pushed the thing out as far from the house as we could and they got their hose and put it out quickly.”

Thanks to their efforts, the car’s cockpit was the only casualty in the blaze which Mr Cordeaux was grateful for.

“It could have been an awful lot worse,” he said.

“And there’s no way I could have anticipated that such a thing would happen because it’s totally rare.

“I’m very grateful to the fire brigade and the police who were so supportive and very understanding.”

The cause and total damage bill from the fire is yet to be determined.