ABOUT 60 schoolchildren escaped a fiery death when the bus they were in, burst into flames on the Queens Highway at Wainadoi outside Lami.
An article published by The Fiji Times on April 28, 1988, stated Class Two pupils of Gospel Primary School in Suva were travelling to Deuba for a picnic when the incident happened.
The children, accompanied by their parents, first saw smoke from the engine near the driver’s seat.
“We were frightened. We were screaming and jumping out of windows to get out of the bus,” a pupil said.
“Nobody got out of the door, we just jumped out of the window.”
According to the article, the children were safely evacuated minutes before the bus burst into flames.
“Just to imagine what would have happened if we were still in the bus makes me turn cold,” a parent said.
Etasa Delana, a teacher, said the school had hired eight buses from M.Kumar Brothers Ltd of Suva to take the children on the picnic.
“I reached Deuba and realised some of the children had not arrived,” she said.
Mrs Delana went back to find the bus burning in the middle of the highway.
A grandfather of one of the children said he was critical of the condition of the bus.
“To think, the children could have had a major disaster if they hadn’t escaped in time, makes me wonder what kind of checks are done on buses,” he said.
The owner of the bus company, Mahendra Kumar, said the bus was in good condition when it left Suva that morning.
“I don’t know what happened. It’s probably an electrical fault,” Mr Kumar said.
He said if the driver had disconnected the wires from the battery, it would probably have stopped the fire from spreading.
“But he panicked and tried to get the children out first.
“The Transport Control Board have come and gone, the police have been here, and the fire brigade came, but had no water to put out the fire.”
Mr Kumar assured the public that the bus would be towed away from the highway.