MIDTOWN — A cabbie and his passenger narrowly escaped his taxi before it suddenly burst into flames in Midtown Thursday morning, the driver said.
Diallo Nouhou, who is 62 and has driven taxis for 17 years, was 90 minutes into his morning shift with a man he had picked up from Penn Station and was heading along West 58th Street when the hood of his cab started smoking about 8:30 a.m., he said.
"I was driving and I saw smoke coming from the front of the car. I immediately parked the car. I told my customer, 'Get out! Get out!' One minute after, the front of the car was on fire," Nouhou said.
Firefighters arrived about 10 minutes later and extinguished the flames, an FDNY spokesman said.
No injuries were reported.
GET MORE CRIME AND MAYHEM NEWS
The blaze erupted just a block from Nouhou's passenger's destination, so the man paid his $8.60 fare and went on his way, the driver said.
It was not immediately clear why the yellow cab caught fire.
Nouhou, who drives the cab along with another man who covers the night shift, was shocked by the fire because the car's owner just bought it in 2014.
"I don't want this to happen to anybody. I was very, very lucky," he said.
