Pune: As many as 14 bus passengers travelling from Hyderabad to the city had a narrow escape after fire engulfed it near Kadamwak Vasti along the Pune-Solapur highway around 8.30am on Friday, thanks to the driver . Arvind Swami, driving the private luxury air-conditioned sleeper bus, was startled after he heard an unusual sound from the engine.
“I heard it just once and it was not natural. I suspected a short-circuit and immediately steered the bus to the side of the road and stopped. As I was opening the door, one of the tyres of the bus burst and the fire started,” Arvind Swami told TOI.
Swami told all passengers to get out of the bus immediately. “Within moments, the bus was empty. We moved to a safe distance.
The fire brigade team arrived after a while and got to the task of dousing the flames,” he said. Fire brigade officials said no one suffered any injuries or casualties in the incident but the whole bus was gutted. One official said all luggage, along with a two-wheeler being transported in the bus, had burnt in the incident.
Fire officer Pramod Sonawane, along with fire brigade driver Narayan Jagtap and jawans Baba Chavan, Aniket Taru, Avinash Dhakne and Ramdas Lad doused the flames. The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA)’s driver Sandeep Shelke and jawans Laxman Misal, Akash Rathod, Suraj Ingwale and Sanket Kumhar assisted them. Rajan Junawane, the president of the Pune District Bus and Car Owners’ Association, told TOI, “We have re.