PATHANAMTHITTA: A moving KSRTC bus that was on its way to pick up Sabarimala devotees caught fire at Attathodu between Nilakkal and Pampa in the early hours of Sunday. Only the driver and the conductor, both hailing from Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram, were in the bus when the incident took place around 5.30am. They both escaped unhurt.
“We caught whiff of an odour. Then there was a spark and smoke started coming out of the bonnet. Immediately, the driver stopped the bus and doused the flames with the fire extinguisher. That did not work. Since there was no mobile coverage at the place, we could not alert anyone,” the conductor said. He said they also stopped other vehicles on the route and used around eight extinguishers to try and stop the fire.
As soon as the fire department received an alert, three fire engine units, two from Pampa and one from Nilakkal, reached the spot and doused the flames. By the time the fire was fully doused, the bus was gutted.
The non-AC bus from the KSRTC’s Peroorkada depot comes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) project, an official said. Devaswom Board member A Ajikumar visited the spot later to assess the situation.