TEAM HERALD
CANACONA: In what could have been a major New Year Day disaster, 20 commerce students and a teacher from the St Anthony College, Meghalaya, were lucky to escape from a burning Tempo Traveler on Wednesday at Gulem-Canacona.
The incident took place as the tourist Tempo Traveler was transporting the students and teacher from Neugi-Nagar in Panjim to Palolem beach. The commerce students are on an excursion and had arrived on December 2 and will be in the State till January 2.
Narrating the sequence of events leading to the disaster, a student from the group informed Herald that a visit to Palolem beach had been planned as part of their excursion and accordingly a tourist Tempo Traveler was hired to take them to Palolem beach.
“We noticed some smoke from the driver’s cabin, while the vehicle was negotiating a long and steep slope at Karmalghat and we brought it to the driver’s attention. However, the driver tried to ignore the smoke which was seen from below the steering wheel,” said the student.
“As the vehicle kept on moving ahead, we panicked when we saw fire near the driver’s legs and it was only when we raised an alarm that the driver realized the gravity of the situation and steered the vehicle off the road,” the student added.
Losing no time, the panic-stricken students (7 boys and 13 girls) and the male teacher grabbed their belongings and escaped from the bus along with the driver, as the flames rapidly engulfed the vehicle.
“We ran towards a nearby forest anticipating a blast as the bus was destroyed in
the fire.” On receiving news of the incident, a fire brigade led by officer in-charge Namdev Parwar rushed to the spot and doused the flames, which spread to the nearby woods.
