Dindigul
At least 40 passengers and two crew members of a private tourist bus from Maharastra had a providential escape when the bus in which they were travelling caught fire near Vedasandur. No one was injured in the incident that was reported early on Sunday morning.
The police said the tourists — 20 men and 20 women — from Latur in Maharastra were proceeding to Kanniyakumari. When the air-conditioned bus was passing through Vitalnaickanpatti at around 5 a.m., the rear left tyre burst and suddenly it caught fire.
Even as the tourists were fast asleep on their berths in the bus with sleeper facility, the crew noticed the fire and alerted the tourists. The shocked tourists immediately evacuated the bus along with their luggage.
However, all of the sudden the flames spread from the tyre to the other parts of the bus and soon the entire vehicle was on fire.
Meanwhile, fire and rescue services personnel from Vedasandur who rushed to the spot fought the inferno for more than three hours. However, most parts of the bus, registered in Madhya Pradesh, was gutted.
“The bus crew did not have any fire-fighting equipment in the vehicle. Had there been an extinguisher and the crew operated it immediately, the accident could have been averted,” Station Fire Officer V. Kannan said.
