A bus operated by Air India caught fire on Tuesday at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
In an X post, the Delhi Airport announced that the bus, operated by one of its ground handlers, caught fire at noon. The post revealed that the airport’s ARFF (Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting) team ‘swung into action and extinguished the fire within a couple of minutes’.
The bus was stationary and vacant, but near a parked aircraft when the incident occurred.
There were no injuries or casualties, and operations at the airport continue to be normal.
“Only the driver was present when the fire broke out. The blaze was promptly brought under control by fire officials. No injuries or casualties have been reported,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI) Vichitra Veer said in a statement, as per PTI.
The area was briefly cordoned off as part of security measures. A detailed inspection of the bus is underway to ascertain the cause of the blaze.
The fire in the Air India-operated bus at the IGI Airport comes amid a number of bus fire incidents across the country, with the deadliest two being in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan and Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
Bus fire incidents on the rise
As many as 26 people lost their lives in a bus accident in Jaisalmer on October 14 after it caught fire due to a short circuit in the air-conditioning. The bus had only one emergency exit, which reportedly jammed after the fire, thus trapping passengers inside.
In Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool, a bus going from Hyderabad to Bengaluru caught fire after it collided with a motorbike that was lying on the road, resulting in the death of 20 people.
The two-wheeler had already met with an accident, and the bus, after striking it, dragged the bike underneath, with its fuel tank bursting subsequently. The bus’ two 12 KV batteries also burst, thus intensifying the blaze.
It was later revealed that the bus was carrying 234 smartphones as a shipment to Bengaluru, and the fire presumably intensified further once the batteries of these phones burst.
With so many bus fires being reported, it raises questions on whether safety precautions are being followed by private bus operators across the country.