Gwalior, Nov 25 In a heart-stopping incident that could have turned catastrophic, a passenger bus ferrying 45 people from Gurugram to Panna in Madhya Pradesh, burst into flames late on Monday night on the Mumbai Highway in Gwalior's Old Cantonment police station area.
The video coach, registered as UP93 CT-6747, was reduced to a charred skeleton within minutes, but swift actions by the driver and alert passengers ensured no lives were lost.
The ordeal unfolded around midnight as the bus crossed the Morena district border into Gwalior. Most passengers, including women and children, were settling in for the long overnight journey, with many dozing off, said police officials.
Eyewitnesses and survivors recounted how a sharp-eyed passenger first spotted sparks flying from a rear tyre or possibly an electrical wire, while the vehicle cruised through the dimly-lit cantonment stretch.
Driver Anil Sharma, an experienced person on the route, reacted with remarkable composure. He veered the bus onto the roadside shoulder, slamming on the brakes just 200 metres from a fuel station— a potential powder keg had the fire spread unchecked.
"I knew we had seconds," Sharma told reporters at the scene. "I yelled for everyone to exit from the rear door first."
In a coordinated frenzy, passengers grabbed what they could —handbags, shawls, and a few suitcases — leaping out into the cool November night.
Children wailed as parents shielded them, but the evacuation was orderly, completed in under two minutes.
The flames, initially confined to the tyre erupted ferociously after that, but fortunately the bus was empty by that time.
Fuelled by the vehicle's electrical system and possibly a short circuit in the wiring — a common culprit in such blazes, as per recent transport safety reports — the fire roared through the cabin, melting seats and shattering windows.
In 20 minutes, nothing was left but smoke and twisted metal.
Police officials said that some luggage, including clothes and electronics worth thousands of rupees, was lost in the inferno, leaving families in distress.
Local police and fire tenders from the Old Cantonment station arrived within 10 minutes, sirens blaring through the quiet cantonment lanes — a historic area once a British military outpost, now a bustling transit hub.
Despite their efforts, the blaze was too advanced and the firefighters battled for over an hour to douse the wreckage, preventing it from spreading to nearby roadside dhabas.
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