Reverend Horton Heat's Tour Bus Bursts Into Flames On US Interstate

Veteran psychobilly icon The Reverend Horton Heat (aka Jim Heath) and his band were involved in a lucky escape on a US interstate in California after their tour bus burst into flames on the road.

No members of the touring party were hurt, but Heath said in a post on Facebook that, although the fire spread swiftly, the situation was prevented from spinning out of hand thanks to quick action by firefighters from nearby Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.

"Heating up the highway. Our bus caught fire," the post read. "We are all ok.

"It was scary at first but the Camp Pendleton guys got their fire fighters over to us pretty quick. Thanks to them, not much of anything got ruined.

"The inside filled with smoke in less than a minute after I smelled something. That was scary. But we are all ok."

Heath told local outlet ABC10 that, upon realising something was amiss, he "woke the guys up as quickly as I could and tried to get them out of there because it was already filled with smoke". The incident occurred just after 4am Wednesday (US time) and resulted in two lanes being closed, while ABC10 says the fire is believed to have originated in the bus's generator.

However, in another small piece silver lining, the band's gear was undamaged, being towed behind the bus in a trailer, which escaped being impacted by the blaze.

The Reverend Horton Heat are currently on tour in the US, with their next show scheduled in Long Beach, California, on Thursday night, having successfully gone on to make their Wednesday-night date in Solana Beach.