BEST bus catches fire, no injuries reported

An air-conditioned CNG BEST bus on wet lease caught fire after sparks emanated from its battery on Thursday evening. No injuries have been reported. 

As per the BEST spokesperson, the incident happened on a bus operated by Daga Group while it was ferrying from Kranti Nagar to Kandivali station at around 6 pm  

"On arrival of the bus, near Alika Nagar Junction Driver observed sparking in Battery. He immediately stopped the bus and evacuated the passengers. Meanwhile, a fire broke out" said a BEST spokesperson, adding that the driver immediately used the fire extinguisher and doused the fire. 

"There are no injuries and casualties in the incident" the spokesperson added. 

The civic body officials on which BEST is a part claimed that the fire brigade officials reached the spot and doused the fire on the mid-sized-bus. It was finally extinguished about half an hour later. 

A fire call was received at 6.04 pm, after which police personnel and firefighters arrived at the Lokhandwala Complex Junction to douse the blaze in the mid-sized bus, he said. Further, the bus operating company officials were also summoned to the incident spot and have been asked to submit a technical investigation into it and submit a relevant report to the authorities. Also, rest of buses run by the operator are likely to be inspected, the civic body officials added.  

The development happens when many cases of electric vehicles, particularly the two-wheelers catching fire have been reported across the country. Moreover, there are also a couple of cases of EV buses catching fire in the recent past including the one which happened in February when a zero-emission airport electric bus was gutted in a fire when it was parked near Cantonment bus depot in Hyderabad.