TEAM HERALD
CANACONA: Nineteen passengers, a bus conductor and the driver had a lucky escape, after a KTC bus caught fire at Shelim-Madditolop slope in Loliem-Canacona on Thursday morning.
According to reports, the Karwar-Margao KTC bus (GA-03-X-179) was proceeding towards Canacona with 19 passengers, when the driver noticed smoke emanating from the bus engine. The alert driver informed the conductor about the fire and immediately pulled the bus to the side of the road and stopped and asked the passengers to alight from the bus, before jumping out from his seat.
“Timely presence of mind of the bus driver Krishna Pagui helped avert a major tragedy,” said a passenger.
Efforts were made to extinguish the flames as they engulfed the bus. Fire services received a call at 9.44 am and by the time they arrived at the site, the bus was almost charred.
According to fire services sources, the loss has been estimated at Rs 10 lakh.
“A short circuit is suspected to be the reason, but further investigation is being carried out to ascertain the exact cause of the fire,” stated fire personnel.
Canacona fire station team led by Francisco Mendes, which also had K D Sail, N R Satarkar, P M Velip, Vinay Velip, Satish Dessai, Viraj Dessai, S K Dessai, Chetan Prabhu and Umesh Achari took part in the fire fighting operation.
