Bangalore: Remember that Hyderabad Volvo bus fire accident in which 40 passengers were burnt alive and no one came to their rescue?
Almost a similar mishap took place on Monday in Bangalore when a private bus caught fire with 40 passengers trapped inside.
It happened in Kempanayakanahalli on Bannerghatta Road when a bus stopped outside a factory gate. The passengers trapped inside the bus were screaming for help when suddenly a Good Samaritan appeared on the scene.
Twentyfour-year-old electrician Manjunath S, 24, who works as a maintenance assistant in a garment factory saw the helpless passengers and within seconds, he rushed to help them. He brought two fire extinguishers from inside the factory and controlled the fire inside the bus by entering through the driver's door.
He tried to open the hydraulic doors which were jammed. He rushed inside the factory and came out with some tools with which he pried open the stuck doors of the bus.
Within 3 minutes, Manjunath had managed to save 40 lives.
Narrating the incident, Manjunath said, he happened to arrive 45 minutes early that day for his duty and found a bus standing outside the factory with people screaming inside.
The bus was carrying employees of QED Agro Systems and was coming from Kempenayakanahalli when the entire wiring system short circuited, setting the bus on fire.
K Nagaraja, manager, QED Agro Systems, who was inside the bus, said, "At around 8 am, I heard my colleagues scream 'Fire! Fire!' Fumes were filling up the inside of the bus.
"We all panicked and tried to open the windows as the doors were jammed.
