Alert driver drops off kids before taxi goes up in flames
TEACHERS scrambled to get children away from a school fence after a minibus taxi suddenly burst into flames just 10m from Parkside Primary School in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas yesterday morning.
One boy fainted from shock and other traumatised pupils started crying.
The children had been dropped off on a corner shortly before 8am by the quick-thinking driver when he noticed smoke coming from the front of the vehicle.
The cause of the blaze is believed to have been caused by an engine fault.
Taxi driver and owner Mongezi Dlepu said he had only recently bought the taxi and it was just the second time he had used it to transport children to school. Police said no one was injured. Only the burnt-out shell of the vehicle remained after firefighters extinguished the blaze.
Parkside Primary School deputy principal Emlyn Jacobs said teachers saw the fire shortly after 8am.
“We had to control the children after they noticed the fire.
“They all ran to the school fence to watch but the teachers were worried it would explode.
“When the tyres started exploding, teachers moved the pupils away from the fence.”
Jacobs said some teachers had tried to help by filling buckets of water, but the fire was too intense.
“Within five minutes, it was too late. We have received calls from concerned parents but, fortunately, no one was injured.”
Jacobs said the driver transported pupils to various schools in the city.
Science teacher Wendel Naidoo said he had passed a fire extinguisher over the fence as soon as he saw the fire.
“I gave it to someone over the fence, but I think there was not much left inside it.
“We then tried filling up buckets [with water], but it was too late and ... the fire was engulfing the whole van,” he said.
One of the pupils who had been in the taxi, Athamphiwe Makeba, said the driver saw smoke coming from the engine and dropped the pupils off on a corner near the school.
“The driver and his son then drove around the school looking for a tap.
“They found a tap and the son tried to fetch water, but then the fire started.
“The driver’s son fainted when he saw his father’s van on fire,” the Grade 7 pupil said.
Dlepu said it was the second time he had transported pupils in the vehicle.
“It gave me problems and I went to have it fixed, but then this morning I saw the smoke and the fire started. I do not know why this happened,” he said.
He confirmed that his son, a pupil at Morningside High School, had fainted when the vehicle erupted in flames.
“It was shock. He saw his father’s bus was burning and that it could not be saved.
“He was shocked and worried, but he is OK now,” Dlepu said.
Police spokesman Captain Johan Rheeder said a mechanical fault was believed to be the cause of the fire.
The driver’s son fainted when he saw his father’s van on fire