AN AMBULANCE has caught on fire when its crew stopped to help a man whose van burst into flames at a busy intersection in Melbourne’s east.

The van driver, who is only known as Denis, was forced to jump out of his car when he noticed smoke billowing from the engine at the intersection of Jacksons and Police roads in Mulgrave about 10.20am.

Passing paramedics saw the flames and stopped to check there were no casualties when the van fire intensified and it rolled back into the ambulance, which in turn caught fire.

No-one was injured in the dramatic scenes, which stopped traffic in the area with all northbound lanes of Jacksons Rd closed.

Denis spoke to 3AW soon after and had no explanation for why his gas-run Toyota HiAce van burst into flames.

“I don’t know (what’s happened) — it’s just one of those things,” he said.

“I was just merrily driving along and a big pool of smoke came into the cabin and I thought I better get out and have a look at this.

“I just hopped out, lifted the seat and thought ‘Hello, the motor is on fire’. I threw a rug over it but that wasn’t enough to put it out.

“Then it rolled back into an ambulance and burnt that up.

“(My van) is just a shell. The worst part about it is my wallet was in it.”

Denis was the only person in his van and was going to pay a bill when it caught fire.

Ambulance Victoria acting group manager Rob Heaslip said it was an unfortunate set of circumstances that caused the fiery scene.

“One of our ambulance crews has noticed a vehicle on fire and pulled over to check that everyone was OK,” he said.

“Our ambulance was parked to block the intersection and assist with traffic control.

“The burning vehicle has later rolled into the parked ambulance, causing damage to the ambulance.”

He said they were pleased no-one was injured.

The ambulance was significantly damaged and is expected to be out of action for some time while it is repaired.

Melbourne Fire Brigade station officer Russell Jenzen said the van had left a “trail of destruction”.

“When we came off the freeway at Jacksons Road we could see the smoke already,” he said, describing the scene on arrival.

“We then started to see the flames and as we got closer we noticed it was right up against an ambulance.

“We could see a bit of a trail of destruction from where he’d parked. The guy’s jumped out and forgot to put the handbrake on because it was on fire.

“The ambulance has significant damage to the back quarter and the windows smashed from the heat. But there is no damage inside the ambulance.”

But he said it could have been worse if the ambulance wasn’t caught in the inferno.

“The ambulance has stopped the van from rolling further into oncoming traffic or the nearby houses, or, while unlikely, the service station across the road,” he said.

Firefighters took about 10 minutes to extinguish the burning vehicles, before they cleared the scene and the wrecks were towed away.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident but do not believe it is suspicious.

rebekah.cavanagh@news.com.au