Our Correspondent
About 44 passengers escaped death on Monday after their bus with registration number GBE 257 XA heading to Ketu from Ibafo went into flame on Otedola Bridge in Lagos.
Some of the passengers claimed the fire started when the driver was joining wire to re-start the bus after stopping for some passengers to alight, while others attributed the cause to over-heating.
.The driver was said to have fled immediately the fire started after managing to move the bus to the side of the road.
The Ilupeju fire station arrived at the Otedola Bridge and later joined by the Alausa fire station to avert casualties and prevent loss of lives in the raging inferno.
The incident was put under control by the joint efforts of the two stations.
Lagos State Fire Service Acting Director Rasaki Musibau said the absence of fire extinguishers made the bus burnt completely.
He lamented that despite the sensitisation to motorists to always equip their vehicles with basic firefighting tools as first aid in time of fire outbreak, most motorists refused to comply.
The presence of the firemen, he said, prevented the fire from spreading to other vehicles on the high way.