Narrow escape as school bus with 35 students catches fire

A bus carrying 35 students and four staff members to a private school caught fire near the Huda City Centre Metro station on Monday morning. The children were rescued in time and no injuries were reported, however, the bus was badly burnt.

The incident happened at 8.05 am when the bus attached with Amity International School in sector-43, Gurgaon was carrying students to school. Bus driver, Satyaveer Singh, noticed smoke billowing from the bonnet and raised an alarm. He parked the bus on the road and jumped out. The staff members immediately de-boarded the kids, who were sent to school in another bus.

Students from Class 1 to 12 were travelling in the bus when the incident happened.

Fire brigade officials said that they got the information about the incident at 8.10 am. “Two fire tenders were rushed to the spot,” said Ishm Singh Kashyap, district fire officer.

“There were four staff members in the bus and they immediately started evacuating the children. There was no panic and the situation was managed well in time and there was no injury to the students,” said Dr Anshu Arora, principal of the school. She said that the posts on social media about injury to students were just rumours.

“We organised a havan and prayed for the safe rescue of the students”, said Arora.

Mahesh Kumar, owner of the bus, said the bus was on its way to a CNG station in sector 29 for filling gas and that it wasn’t carrying any students at the time of the incident. “Only the driver and conductor were in the bus when he left sector-12 to fill CNG. This bus is attached with a private firm in Manesar and transports its staff,” he said.

Trilok Chand, secretary Regional Transport Authority (RTA), said that he has been to the spot and conducted an inspection. “We will probe the incident and look into safety features adopted in the bus. Action will be taken if any laxity is found,” he said.