Dick Van Dyke’s ride is toast, but he’s unscathed after car fire

According to Dick Van Dyke, “Somebody’s looking after me!” And ain’t that the truth, after he escaped without a scratch Monday while his car burned up on the side of the 101 Freeway.

“Van Dyke’s melted car ... He’s fine thank God!!,” his wife, Arlene, tweeted after the incident, including a link to a short Vine video of the actor’s fried ride.

Though according to the California Highway Patrol accident log it was two off-duty nurses who yanked the 87-year-old out of the four-door sedan, Van Dyke told a TMZ cameraman it was just an ordinary citizen, and “a fireman and a nurse and a cop just happened to be passing by.” Hence the guardian-angel chat. Van Dyke — who noted that he got out long before the fire really caught — said he was trying to call “the DMV,” but the fellow who yanked him from the car thought he had passed out.

The car “just started making a noise,” the actor told the cameraman. “I thought I had a flat at first, and then it started smoking, then it burned to a crisp.”

The two right lanes of the eastbound 101, near Parkway Calabasas, were briefly closed around 2 p.m. when the fire was burning, L.A. Now reported.

Meanwhile, Dick hitched a ride home with Arlene, who’d come to pick him up.

“Tell ‘em I have a nice used car for sale,” he joked to the camera.

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