Jess Rowe opens up after terrifying escape from car that burst into flames

Jessica Rowe has opened up about the horrifying moment her car burst into flames during school pick-up.

The television star says she still “can’t quite believe what happened,” revealing she was driving with her teenage daughter in the eastern suburbs of Sydney when the disturbing scene unfolded.

“We were heading up the hill to pick up my other daughter from school and then the car started really slowing down and all this smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet,” she explained on Sunrise.

“I was in a bit of shock thinking ‘what is actually happening?”

Rowe said a hero school bus driver “jumped out of his bus” to flag her down and tell her to immediately escape the car that had begun burning.

“We got out of the car and waited in his school bus while he rang the fire brigade and got the other kids off the road,” she recounted.

The car was completely engulfed in flames within minutes, videos captured by bystanders has shown.

“His name is Mev and I want to send him all of my love and thanks, he was just extraordinary the way he looked after Allegra and I,” she said of the bus driver.

“Obviously the engine overheated,” Rowe said, although it is not confirmed exactly how the Volvo XC 60 burst into flames.

The former Studio 10 star, who is married to newsreader Peter Overton, said her daughter was left “quite upset” by the incident.

She also said that her husband was “probably more stressed than I was” after receiving a FaceTime call from the scene.

“Allegra rang him in such a state, so he didn’t actually read the news last night, he left to come home and give Allegra a big hug.”

The mother-of-two said she’s “thankful” she had chosen to wear an acceptable outfit on Thursday, saying “often with school pick-up I’m in my pjyamas and on this particular day I wasn’t.”

Rowe posted about the incident on Instagram and thanked “the kind school bus driver, Mev, who got us out of the car, called the fire brigade, cleared the road and then stayed to drive us home.”

She also thanked the police and paramedics and “the mums & dads who stopped to help”.

“We love you,” she wrote.