Passengers escape as bus catches fire

Jun 18 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

PASSENGERS managed to scramble to safety after a bus caught fire.

The single-decker First Bus was being driven along Acre Street close to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in Lindley when smoke began to pour from the engine at about 11.50am yesterday.

The driver and around nine passengers managed to get off unhurt as the fire took hold.

Eyewitness David Ward, 29, and his wife, Olivia, had just taken their three-month-old baby, Niamh, to Lindley Group Practice for her inoculations when the drama unfolded.

David, of Salendine Nook, said: “We had just left the doctor’s surgery when we saw a single-decker bus on fire.

“The fire engines were just arriving, but everyone seemed to have got off the bus.

“The bus was well ablaze and the windows were popping in the heat. It looks like fuel had also spilled underneath and that was on fire too.’’

Olivia added: “We didn’t know what to do as we thought it was too dangerous to go anywhere near the bus so we returned to the surgery and they let us stay in a staff room until the fire engines arrived.’’

Firefighters were called shortly before 11.50am and quickly brought the fire under control.

Crews from Huddersfield and Elland were called to the scene and used two hose reels to put out the fire..

A brigade spokesman said: “When we arrived we were able to get the fire under control very quickly.

“It had started in the rear engine compartment and the heat shattered the rear window of the bus.

“We stopped it spreading to the main part of the vehicle.

“From our initial inquiries it seems likely that it was an electrical fault, although the bus company engineers will be able to tellbetter.”

The bus was later recovered from the scene by First Bus engineers.