Guest Author - Michelle Snow

Pop singer Aaron Carter narrowly escaped a fiery death early Thursday morning when his brand new 2004 Cadillac Escalade erupted in flames on the Florida Turnpike.

The problem didn't start with the SUV, though. Carter, who was en route with a friend from the Miami area to Orlando for a photo shoot, was traveling behind a delivery truck, when a mattress broke loose from the rigging.

Carter, 17, says he swerved in an attempt to avoid the debris, but the mattress ended up getting stuck under his car. Officials think at this point, it possibly ruptured the fuel tank. From there, the friction of the mattress springs dragging on the highway could have sparked the combustible fluid into flames.

Carter says his friend barely managed to drag him free of the vehicle before it was completely engulfed in an inferno. Though he tried to douse the fire with bottles of water he had on hand, by the time rescue vehicles reached them, the SUV burned through to the frame.

Carter released a statement in the afternoon, saying he is in shock over what happened, but he wants to thank police and emergency workers who rushed to help him.

"Everything happened in such a whirlwind. It was like the mattress flew out of nowhere," the pop star explained in the statement. "I am so lucky to be alive now!"

Other than minor bumps and bruises, Carter and his friend escaped unharmed.

Officials said the truck from which the mattress fell never stopped.