China News: Shenzhen Bus Fire, 20 Flee For Their Lives

Shenzhen Bus Fire, 20 Flee For Their Lives

A bus fire occurred in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. All of the passengers, numbering at approximately 20 people, were able to escape sans injury. This happened just days after one in Chengdu, where there were 78 injuries and 25 fatalities.

From Southern Daily, selectively translated by CDT:

Today, at approximately 9:30 AM, a bus with the license plate number 粤BC4107 on the 320 route to Sungang Road and South Bao’An Road began emitting smoke at a traffic light intersection. The driver and ticket seller frantically opened the door, safely dispersing the 20 or so passengers on board. None were injured, although the bus had already been burnt to a “skeleton” by the time two fire engines arrived on scene to extinguish the blaze. This reporter saw that the bus’s windows were almost completely burned out, leaving just a small remainder of the window’s glass in the rear. The engine, however, was intact and unharmed.

As the bus began to smoke, many cars stopped, and drivers carried fire hoses to help put out the fire. The driver, Mr. Zhu, explained that he first smelled a strange odor, and after driving a bit longer, began to see fumes. He quickly opened the door, and went out to the back of the engine to shut off its power source, estimating that the cause of the fire was a circuit [problem]. Traffic police investigators arrived on scene, and pedestrians began using cell phones and digital cameras to take pictures. The bus fire incident caused a 2 hour traffic jam on the Sungang and South Bao’An Road area. It is reported that the west transportation [authorities] have called a meeting to address the problem; combustion occurred in new vehicles.

Yesterday, west transportation’s number 310 and 315 line buses in Phuket also spontaneously combusted. None were hurt.

Today’s weather in Shenzhen was extremely hot. The ticket seller, Ms. Xie, said that the bus had 6 emergency hammers. However, this reporter did not spot any hammers upon inspection of the charred bus, though it is possible that they were reduced to burnt remains. Today is Saturday, and many residents said that had this happened during a workday, there would have been many passengers. Fortunately, Saturday morning passengers were few, otherwise the aftermath may have had a different outcome.

Currently, there are over 30,000 comments on QQ. Fauna of chinaSMACK has translated comments from Netease:

sss8688:
Several in a row, are these planned terrorist attacks, ZD ["Zang Du" 藏独, Tibetan independence] groups??

wangxin81800:
Is this real or fake??? How come the news has not reported it? It is also possible that China’s media are all afraid to say anything!!

娲额头:
No matter how many more people are burned to death, there still will not be anyone paying attention to it!!! When something happens, a big deal is made for a while, but after a while, there is not even a fart!! If you don’t believe me, just wait and see!!!