A woman has been taken to hospital suffering shock after an old wine barrel exploded while she was lighting a cigarette outside her home in Adelaide’s west.

The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) was called to the Henry St property at West Croydon at 11.40am after reports of an explosion.

They said today’s warm weather had caused an old wine barrel to release vapour, which ignited when the woman tried to light a cigarette nearby.

The MFS described the circumstances as ‘highly unusual’.

The woman – believed to be in her 40s – was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.