An Illinois bright spark, who decided the best way to check the level of combustible fluid in a petrol can was by using a cigarette lighter, ended up with a torched car and second-degree burns.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the unnamed 27-year-old woman was in a gas station in Joliet last week and "was filling up a gas can, which was sitting on the passenger seat of the car", as police later explained.

The cops continued: "She then used a lighter to observe how full the can was."

The petrol duly ignited, the can exploded and "apparently afraid that the fire would spread to the gas pump she had been using, the woman began to push the burning car".

Firefighters arrived to find the vehicle ablaze about five feet from the pump. The woman was treated at the scene for "second-degree burns to her right wrist and right thigh", and was later admitted into hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. ®