At Ambala Cantt railway station on Saturday. (Express photo by A Aggarwal)
Fire broke out in a compartment of Amritsar-Lalkuan Express just before reaching Ambala Cantt railway station on Saturday. Since the train managed to reach the railway station in time, a fire-fighting squad was able to control the blaze and give green signal for further journey to Lalkuan in Uttarakhand. There was no human or material loss in the fire.
According to passengers in the train, panic spread as they noticed smoke in a second-class compartment. The passengers alighted at the railway station and started running helter-skelter. The people at the platform first tried to control the fire by sprinkling water, but it continued to spread in the compartment. Meanwhile, the railway authorities were informed and a rescue team was rushed to the spot. The team entered the compartment and succeeded to control the fire.
Station director D S Gill, with technical staff, reached the platform number 2 where the train was stopped. He said that according to preliminary report, the fire might have caused from burning cigarette butt or bidi that some passenger might have thrown in a toilet dustbin. “It was a coincidence that the fire spread as the train reached the station where it was controlled. The train left the station for Lal Kuan, Uttrakhand, after the clearance given by the rescue squad,” he said.
Alert passengers on Haryana Roadways bus avert tragedy
Smoke coming out of the bus at Ambala cantt on Saturday. (Express photo by A Aggarwal)
A Haryana Roadways bus, coming from Jhhar to Chandigarh, caught fire near Ambala Cantt on Saturday. Though no one was injured, the stranded passengers were sent to Chandigarh by other Haryana Roadways buses.
When the bus, that left Jhajjar for Chandigarh in the morning, crossed Shahbad Marknada, some of the passengers complained of foul smell of smoke from its back. Initially, the conductor ignored it saying that one of the tyres might have been emanating the smell as it was new.
But, when smoke started emitting from tool box, the conductor took note of it and managed to control the fire that had spread in its battery panel.
Conductor Vinod Kumar said that its wires had touched each other which caused smoke. He extinguished the blaze with the help of a fire extinguisher.
The conductor said that as the bus was negotiating its path to reach bus stand, the driver might have applied brakes that resulted in releasing pressure and caused the accident.
As the fire spread, the passengers got down from the bus and started running helter-skelter, but they were sent to their destinations via other state buses.