26 passengers have miraculous escape as bus goes up in flames in Andhra Pradesh

A technical problem in back engine is said to be cause of incident which totally destroyed the bus in fire.
A private travels bus that was reduced to a skeleton in a fire mishap, near Enugumarri, in Kurnool district on Thursday | Express
A private travels bus that was reduced to a skeleton in a fire mishap, near Enugumarri, in Kurnool district on Thursday | Express

KURNOOL: As many as 26 passengers of a private travels bus had a miraculous escape as the vehicle caught fire due to a technical problem on National Highway No. 44, near Enugumarri, under Pyapili mandal of Kurnool district at about 3.45 a.m on Thursday. The bus was totally destroyed in the incident. Luggage of passengers, including laptops, mobiles, cash and gold ornaments that were kept in the racks, were reduced to ashes within minutes.

According to Pyapili CI Mulakanna, the sleeper bus with 29-seat capacity (AP 02 A 8055) belongs to Yellow Travels. It was proceeding to Bengaluru from Hyderabad with 26 passengers on board when the incident took place.

When the vehicle was approaching Enugumarri village, some passengers who were sleeping on berths in the rear part of the bus found smoke emanating from their seats and immediately alerted driver A Anjaneyulu who stopped the vehicle. Immediately, he made   all the passengers to alight the vehicle without taking their luggage. 

Soon, the flames spread to the entire bus and destroyed it completely even as the passengers and the crew watched helplessly. The police and fire tenders reached the spot and doused the flames. No casualties or injuries were reported in the incident, the CI said and added that a technical problem in back engine was the cause of the  incident, he said. A crane was used to clear the  bus, that was reduced to skeleton, from the road. 

While some passengers went back to Hyderabad, the others headed for Bengaluru by other buses. Venkat, a software engineer at Bengaluru and a native of Hyderabad, said that he and his co-passengers were fortunate to be alive.  “I went to Hyderabad along with five of my friends for Ramzan. We were returning to Bengaluru by a Yellow Travels bus which caught fire on the way,” he said. If no one found the smoke and fire, all passengers would have died, he said.

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