Six occupants escaped unhurt after jeep caught fire

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, April 6:

In a bizarre incident, a scorpio jeep, proceeding from South City (Waluj) to Pathardi (in Ahmednagar district), suddenly caught fire, in front of Cidco Growth Centre, on the national highway, today (Wednesday) at 3.30 pm. Meanwhile, the six occupants sitting in the jeep escaped unhurt due to timely action taken by the drive, but the vehicle reduced to ashes leaving the chasis in few minutes.

According to details, a resident of South City, Ashish Shridhar Joshi, has passed away. As a result, his relatives from Nandurnimba Daitya village (of Pathardi tehsil) had arrived in a jeep today morning to attend the funeral procession. After attending the last rites, the relatives - Chandrakant Vithal Joshi (42), Pushpa Chandrakant Joshi (35), Subhash Govind Joshi (64), Nanda Subhash Joshi (60) and Suresh Pandarinath Joshi (60) boarded the jeep at 3.15 pm. The driver Datta Mahadev Andhale (of Jirewadi in Pathardi tehsil) was driving the vehicle. While the jeep was passing through Aurangabad-Nagar National Highway, the driver noticed smoke coming out of the jeep’s bonnet (in front of Cidco Growth Centre). He immediately drove the vehicle to the side of road. All the occupants in the jeep also came out of the vehicle (two women and three men). Later on, the driver opened the bonnet and checked the status of battery. Before, he understands, the fire flames started coming out of the bonnet and the whole jeep started burning.

The temperature was soaring and fire got wild as the wind was running strongly in the opposite direction. The vehicles passing by tried to douse the fire. The jeep and the articles lying in the vehicle got burnt into ashes. After few minutes the chasis was seen visible. The fire fighting jawans of Waluj Fire Brigade Station also tried their best to douse the fire as soon as possible.