Quick-thinking action by Dundee pensioner helps save bus driver

Motorist, 73, awoke sleeping man whose vehicle had caught alight while at city filling station

A 73-year-old Dundee man rescued a bus driver after his vehicle had caught fire in a filling station on the outskirts of the city.

The bus was parked near the BP filling station on Kingsway West on Saturday morning when it burst into flames.

There were no passengers on board, but the driver was inside – and unaware of the unfolding drama.

Portmore Place resident Archie Harper saw the flames as he drove by.

The pensioner turned back and raised the alarm, potentially saving the driver’s life and that of a van driver who was parked beside the bus.

Mr Harper said: “I was driving past and saw the fire through the hedge so doubled back.

“I stopped my car just before the petrol station. I believe they had already phoned the fire brigade but I went over to where the vehicle was and could see the driver was still inside.

“I shouted: ‘Get the bloody hell out of there’.”

Mr Harper said the driver then got out of the vehicle and grabbed a fire extinguisher to try to douse the flames, but without success.

Fire crews arrived and used a hosereel to put out the blaze. They then disconnected the vehicle’s battery.

Archie said he returned later and the driver thanked him for his life-saving intervention.

He said: “I went back to see what the damage was and the driver was still there.

“He said that if it wasn’t for me shouting he would have still been in there as he was asleep.

“There was another guy next to the bus in a white van and he didn’t realise about the fire either.

“If it wasn’t for me shouting they wouldn’t have come out of their vehicles.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were called out to a bus that had gone on fire at the BP filling station on the Kingsway.

“Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hosereel jet to put out the flames before disconnecting the bus’s battery.

“There were no casualties and the fire was put out in about half an hour.”

It is understood the blaze was the result of a fault. Fire crews were also called to a blaze in Kirkton on Sunday evening.

Two sheds on Prieston Road were on fire. Crews used a hosereel to put out the flames.

He said that if it wasn’t for me shouting he would have still been in there as he was asleep. ARCHIE HARPER

Picture: Mhairi Edwards. Pensioner Archie Harper alerted a bus driver who was sleeping on board his burning bus on the outskirts of Dundee, as well as a van driver who was parked beside him.