GHAZIABAD: Smoke filled a school bus carrying 25 children home on Thursday after the battery box caught fire. All the students were evacuated safely and no one was injured.
Police suspect the fire would have been sparked by a short-circuit. Amit Khatri, the SHO of Kavi Nagar police station, said the battery box caught fire around 1.30pm, almost an hour after the bus had left Dehradun Public School in Sanjay Nagar with 25 students of various classes.
“A team rushed to the spot along with fire tenders. Short-circuit would have caused the fire. The driver managed to evacuate all the children with help from others. All the kids in the bus were under 12,” he added.
The flames were doused with a fire extinguisher in the bus. Another vehicle was called and the students were sent home.
Paramjeet Singh (67), who was waiting for his granddaughter, saw smoke coming out of the bus.
“I was waiting at the bus stop as my granddaughter was late. The driver switched off the engine when the bus arrived. The moment he switched it on, smoke started to come out. I ran towards the bus and alerted the driver. The children were evacuated immediately,” said Singh, a resident of H block in Kavi Nagar.
“Once all the children had been brought out, we checked the battery and saw smoke coming out of the wires. The fire was doused using an extinguisher,” he added.
Uday Singh, the transport in-charge at the school, said the bus had left with the students around 12.30pm. “Smoke was coming from the battery box, but there was nothing serious. It cannot be called a fire incident,” he added.
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