US driver sleeps through crash, petrol station fire he started

It took a driver who fell asleep at the wheel 40 seconds before he realised he had crashed into a petrol pump and caused a powerful fire.

Surveillance camera footage showed how the 4WD came off the road and knocked over the petrol pump in Snohomish County, Washington last Saturday.

Almost immediately, a metre-high fire starts blazing mere inches from the side of the car on the driver's side, ABC reports.

But it takes the napping 31-year-old almost a minute before he wakes up and runs away.

Local police say the man was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and has not been charged.

After firefighters doused the blaze, the petrol station was back serving customers later that afternoon.