It's not everyday that everyday that we hear about Dick Van Dyke; actually, it's been a mighty long time since we've heard anything about him. Well today is just one of those days where he so happens to make our front page, as his Jaguar XJ burned to a crisp.

According to the report from TMZ and an interview with Van Dyke, he was cruising down the 101 in Calabasas, California when he heard a noise coming from his fairly new Jaguar XJ->ke1206. Thinking he had gotten a flat tire, he pulled off to the side of the road. Once on the side of the road, he saw smoke starting to come from the car and he tried "calling the DMV" -- we don't know what the DMV does about smoke coming from a car, must be a California thing...

Fortunately for the actor, an off-duty rescue worker was in the area and pulled Van Dyke from the car just before it burst into flames. A video (above) actually shows the flaming Jag and then about three-quarters of the way through the video, the car explodes into an even larger fireball.

Fortunately, no one was injured and Van Dyke seemed in good spirits when TMZ interviewed him. His car, on the other hand, is pretty well thrashed. This is not the first Jag->ke39 that has turned into kitty-cat flambe lately, as an F-Type burned up earlier this month in Belgium. Hopefully this is not a trend for Jaguar, as it has worked hard to rebuild its tattered image from the Ford->ke31 days...

TMZ