A 19-year-old driver had plugged her new phone into her car's charger before it "exploded" after overheating.

The car's interior quickly caught alight but she managed to safely pull over and escape uninjured.

Clifton Grove Ophir Rural Fire Brigade, neat Orange, NSW, helped out at the scene and were surprised to learn of the cause.

"By the time we actually arrived on scene the fire had been extinguished however the whole interior of the car... was actually melting," Deputy Captain Katrina Smith said.

"The battery had heated up and the young lady was very quick in her actions which was highly impressive," she added.

"She parked the car safely, got out of the vehicle, closed the door - all of the windows were [already] closed -, and because she had done that it had actually extinguished the fire.

"There were flames when she pulled over [because] the phone had exploded.

"The risk of injury was very significant. She was very lucky to walk away from that, very lucky.

"She definitely made all the right moves ... For her to pull over in a safe spot [while doing 90 km/hr] was impressive. So she did really well."

The experienced volunteer fire captain said she had never seen anything like it before, adding that even she was surprised to learn that the phone's low battery had caused it to overheat.

"That's what surprised me because I always thought it was the other way around - that [when] we overcharge [batteries] they overheat. It was quite the opposite," she said.

"Apparently when the batteries are very low that's when they produce heat because they're working harder."

Following the incident, the brigade took photos of the aftermath from the car fire and posted them to social media to try and get the message out to the community about the danger of leaving mobile phones on fabric surfaces - especially while charging.