PATHANAMTHITTA: A moving bus of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on its way to carry Sabarimala devotees was gutted after catching fire at Attathodu between Nilakkal and Pamba in the early morning of Sunday.
The bus belonging to Kerala Urban Road Transport Corporation (KURTC), a separate wing of KSRTC, was only with the driver and the conductor when it was going towards Nilakkal to pick up devotees to Pamba at around 5.30 am on Sunday.
"Initially we smelled something wrong, and then a spark and smoke came out from the bonnet. Immediately the driver brought the bus to a halt and doused the flames using the fire extinguisher. However, the fire didn't stop. As there was no mobile coverage in the locality, we couldn't inform anyone of the incident," the conductor said.
He also said they stopped other vehicles that were going on the route and used around eight extinguishers striving to stop the fire.
Upon information, three fire engine units--two from Pamba and one from Nilakkal rushed to the spot and doused the flames.
The bus was fully gutted in the devastating fire even before the firefighters fully doused the fire.
Devaswom Board member A Ajikumar immediately reached the spot to assess the situation.