On Monday afternoon, a major fire broke out on a city bus operated by the Surat municipal corporation, the second such incident in the last ten days. Immediately following the fire, all passengers were safely evacuated.
According to the fire department, GJ-5-BX-3225 bus, which was carrying over 35 passengers from Godadara to Chowk Bazaar was near Radheyshyam Public School in Godadara when smoke began to pour from the engine in the driver’s cabin.
The driver immediately came to a halt and directed the conductor and passengers to exit the bus. Within a few minutes, the smoke gave way to flames that engulfed the bus.
Firefighters arrived on the scene and extinguished the fire, but not before it had burned down the bus to its skeleton, despite the fact that the passengers had escaped unharmed.
Surat reported a similar fire on a city bus on November 26. Nobody was hurt in either incident.
Municipal commissioner Shalini Agrawal has formed a committee to investigate both fires, which includes additional city engineer (mechanical and electrical) K H Khatwani, additional chief fire officer Basant Pareek, Surat RTO Mehul Gajjar, and professors from the mechanical engineering department of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Institute of Technology.
Agrawal said, “We have set up a committee to probe into the incidents and see if there is a problem so that appropriate steps can be taken to prevent such incidents. Apart from this, we will also set up a team to assess the condition of the other city buses.”