A long-distance passenger bus caught fire on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway early Thursday morning, but all 14 passengers escaped unharmed after the driver noticed smoke coming from the vehicle’s air-conditioning system and quickly pulled over.
The bus, registered in Madhya Pradesh, was travelling from Udaipur, Rajasthan, to Pune. The driver, identified by the police as Chhatrapal Singh Kishor Singh Vahia, spotted the smoke, pulled over and evacuated the passengers from the vehicle. He attempted to control the fire using a fire extinguisher available in the vehicle. But the fire rapidly intensified and engulfed the entire bus. A Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation fire-fighting vehicle and two fire engine vehicles from New Panvel and the Khopoli Fire Brigade were sent to the spot and put out the fire. Nine people were killed in the fire.
The incident occurred around 7:25 am near kilometre 16.600 on the Mumbai-bound carriageway.
Officers at the Rasayani police station told the bus driver to lodge a formal complaint. In this case also, police said the fire appeared to have started in the vehicle’s air-conditioning system. The incident came hours after another long-distance bus registered in Bihar caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, at 11pm on Wednesday.
