passengers

Bangalore

24-year-old garment factory technician spots fumes coming from a bus, grabs a fire extinguisher, opens the driver’s door, puts out a blazing fire and saves lives without turning a hairIt would have been a re-run of the horrific fire that burnt alive over 40onboard a Hyderabad-bound Volvo bus, but for the heroic efforts of a garment factory technician in the city on Monday. Not only did the man step inside a burning bus to extinguish the fire, but he also pried open the hydraulic doors, which were jammed shut, with the help of tools.The 40 passengers, who were starting to suffocate, were single-handedly rescued in under three minutes by Manjunath S, 24, who works as a maintenance assistant in the electrical department of a garment factory in Kempanayakanahalli on Bannerghatta Road, 10 kilometres from IIM-B’s Bilekahalli campus.Manjunath happened to arrive 45 minutes early to work on Monday and was just going about his daily schedule when he saw a white private bus coming to a halt in front of the factory’s gateat around 8 am.He toldMirror: “I saw this bus stopping in front of me. When the bus did not move for some time, I realised that there was a problem. I could hear screams and a moment later, spotted thick smoke engulfing the bus. For a moment, the Volvo accident near Hyderabad flashed in my mind. I was really angry after reading numerous reports of how onlookers did not bother to help the passengers stuck in the bus on that fateful day.’’He started wondering why the passengers weren’t trying to get off the bus through the door and were trying the windows instead. CCTV footage from a camera at the factory’s gate shows Manjunath walking towards the bus and attempting to open the driver’s door. He then comes running toward the factory gate, grabs two fire extinguishers, one of which he thrusts into the hand of the security guard at the gate. He then runs with the other one and boards the bus through the driver’s door. A while later, the fumes subside and the passengers trickle out of the front door that Manjunath had managed to prise open .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 on board 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. We were trying to jump from the windows, when we saw this man who extinguished the fire. He was telling us to keep calm . We didn’t know who he was or where he came from, but he was definitely God sent.”