11/09/2008

Passengers Escape Bus Blaze In Cork

A bus has caught fire in Co Cork on Thursday morning, forcing the bus driver and four passengers to flee the vehicle to escape injury.

The fire happened at Kilworth on the 7.30am Cork to Mitchelstown service, and some 20 people including School chidren are believed to have got off the bus minutes before in the Fermoy area.

The driver stopped the coach on the main Dublin-Cork road just south of Caherdrinna to investigate smoke fumes coming from the engine department. The four passengers on the bus also got off the vehicle, and watched the engine compartment of the coach become engulfed in flames within seconds.

According to reports, the driver immediately put in a call to emergency services, but by the time the fire brigade arrived the rear of the coach was badly burned out.

Both Gardaí and Bus Éireann have launched separate investigations in an effort to discover the cause of the blaze.

It is believed the engine in the rear of the single-storey vehicle was completely destroyed and the inside was damaged by smoke.

A Bus Éireann spokesman said the vehicle passed inspection in July and had been serviced last month.

(DW/JM)

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