A one-man fire department: Roman Grosjean jokes with fans after firefighting crashed race car months after horrific crash (VIDEO)

Roman Grosjean had to be dragged away as he tried to douse the flames of his burning car at the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix, jumping from his seat and rushing to grab water before running bravely back towards the smoking vehicle.

Just six months after he was nearly killed in a terrifying fireball crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix that was his final Formula One race, Grosjean was in no mood to walk away after the brakes failed on his Dale Coyne/Rick Ware, escaping the smouldering car.

The man who walked out of a fire last year to the astonished relief of fans who feared he had died then attempted more heroics, grabbing a fire extinguisher and heading back towards the blaze.

A safety team supremo held the daring driver off before eventually persuading him to stop joining in with the rescue effort.

“It was a pretty eventful weekend in Detroit,” he admitted afterwards, having crashed out with five laps remaining.

“I think we had two mega qualifying results with a third and fifth. We were hanging in there at the restart following the red flag and we were looking good.

“I made an attacking move on [rival] Simon Pagenaud but sadly we touched and it caused a puncture.

“After that, I was running at the back and I was trying to find some pace, but I was a bit optimistic, and I ended up in the wall..

"I got sandwiched at the race start [on Sunday] and I lost a fair few positions.

“Then we tried to come into the race but I picked up a drive-through penalty and we tried to come back from there.

“Eventually we had a brake fire, and I had to extinguish a fire, but we’re all good here.

“I think the positive of the day is that we improved the car a lot from yesterday and we can now look forward to Road America.”

Standing in a kitchen looking cheery in an Instagram post, Grosjean later joked: "Detroit fire dpartment, right here. Better to laugh than cry."