Two children were lucky to escape with their lives after being rescued by a passing motorist when they were trapped inside their mother’s 4×4 as it was engulfed by flames.
Alix Ferrie was overwhelmed with panic when the doors of her Land Rover Discovery jammed shut with her children inside and smoke billowing from beneath the bonnet.
But she was able to flag down golf enthusiast John Mackie, who leapt from his car and used a six iron to smash the window and free her daughter Kodi, four, and 11-month-old son Brian.
Yesterday the 34-year-old credited quick-thinking Mr Mackie with saving the lives of her two youngest children just moments before the car was destroyed by fire, leaving it a charred shell.
She told the Scottish Daily Mail: ‘John is a hero. I am so thankful that he came along at the right time.
Alix Ferrie’s daughter Kodi, four, and 11-mont-old son Brian were trapped in a car as it started to go up in flames
‘It felt like a lifetime when I was banging on the windows. But John was in the right place at the right time. He was like a guardian angel. I owe him everything.
‘He was fantastic. He tried to calm the situation down and he was brilliant.
‘From how fast the fire took hold I would not be very confident that I would have been able to break the window if John hadn’t been there.
‘By the time the fire brigade arrived there was nothing left of the front and middle of the car.’
Jaguar Land Rover is now investigating what caused the vehicle to catch fire.
Miss Ferrie, from Glasgow, had bought the red 2016 plate diesel Discovery – which she described as her ‘dream car’ – for £13,000 in March.
The mother-of-five was driving it at low speed near Gartcosh, Lanarkshire, on July 20 when a warning light appeared on the dashboard and the engine cut out and caught fire.
She got out of the car but its deadlocks activated, possibly due to an electrical fault, meaning Kodi and Brian were stuck inside.
John Mackie grabbed his six iron to save two kids from a car which was engulfed by flames
The burnt-out remains of the Land Rover after it was destroyed by the fire
Her attempts to unlock it and to use her keys to try and smash a window were without success.
But fortunately, Mr Mackie, 48, was travelling past with his wife Yvonne and stopped to help when Miss Ferrie flagged them down.
The keen golfer, who plays off a handicap of 7.7, also tried to open the Land Rover’s doors then dashed to fetch one of his clubs from his bag in the car.
The car exploded into flames just minutes after he and Miss Ferrie pulled Kodi and Brian out of the car and carried them a safe distance away.
Mr Mackie, a butcher at the award-winning S Collins and Sons, said: ‘I got out of the car and she said “the kids are in the car” so I took the keys off her and tried the doors in case she was just in a panic.
‘The doors were locked but I knew my golf clubs were in the car and that an iron would be the best thing to use. It was a six iron that I pulled out.
‘I put the driver’s window in and opened the door. I took her daughter out and Alix jumped in and got her son out.
‘We went back to my car and within a few minutes the Land Rover was totalled. It was ablaze. Nobody would have survived in there.’
Miss Ferrie and her children were not injured but her daughter Kodi has been suffering nightmares.
Her insurance company has also offered her £9,000 in settlement for the written-off vehicle, which is less than what she still owes on it.
Land Rover has provided her with a hire car while it probes the cause of the fire.
But she declined the use of a Land Rover and added: ‘I told them not to try it. It had been my dream car but I will be driving something different in future.’
Jaguar Land Rover was contacted for comment.
