An Israeli man living in New York narrowly escaped tragedy this week after his car suddenly caught fire while he was asleep inside.

According to people familiar with the incident, the man, who is not (yet) frum, had gone outside late at night to smoke in his car after his wife did not allow smoking inside the house. At some point, he fell asleep in the vehicle.

He later recounted that the strong smell of smoke suddenly woke him up. Within moments, flames began spreading rapidly through the car. He managed to escape just in time before the vehicle became completely engulfed in fire.

What left him shaken even more was what he discovered afterward.

Inside the car was a Tefilas Haderech card featuring a picture of the Rebbe, which he had received some time earlier from the shluchim operating the Chabadair stand at JFK International Airport. He had decided to keep the card with him, and it had reportedly been sitting between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat before the fire.

After the blaze was extinguished, the man noticed that the card was no longer inside the burned vehicle. Instead, it was found outside the car entirely untouched by the flames. The man said he has no explanation for how the card got there.

A video from the scene shows the car heavily damaged and burned, while the Tefilas Haderech card with the Rebbe’s picture remained fully intact.

The experience deeply affected him, and he recognized that his life had been saved through what he described as a clear miracle that he attributed to the Rebbe’s merit.

VIDEO: