School bus carrying students catches fire in Kochi, no casualty reported

KOCHI: A school bus carrying students caught fire at Kundannoor in Kochi. No casualty has been reported. The bus that caught fire belongs to Thevara SH school. The bus caught fire when it reached below the Kundannoor bridge Wednesday morning at around 8.30.

Seeing smoke emanating from the bus, the driver stopped the vehicle and evacuated the students. The bus was in flames soon after that. The fire force reached the spot and doused the flames immediately.

A school bus had caught fire in Chengannur the other day. The accident happened when it was coming after picking up at the students. The children were miraculously saved by the timely intervention of the driver. The bus of Mannar Sree Bhuvaneswari English Medium School caught fire on Chengannur Ala Athalakadavu-Pennukkara temple road.

Driver Sreekumar noticed smoke bellowing from the front of the bus after picking students from Puliyur, Periserry and Ala. There were 17 students in the bus at that time. He suddenly switched off the engine, brought the students out and shifted them to a nearby house. Soon the bus caught fire.

Though firefighting equipment of the bus and one taken from the house of local resident advocate Jaison was used, the fire could not be controlled. Fire rescue team from Chengannur later extinguished the fire. The students were later dropped in their homes. The Chengannur Joint RTO issued a fitness certificate to the bus that met with the accident. The preliminary conclusion is that short circuit is the cause of fire. The Chengannur police have registered a case. The department of motor Vehicles said that four officials were assigned to carry out an expert examination of the burnt bus.