A bus driver and three passengers have been evacuated from a bus that was engulfed in flames in Sydney’s south-west, seven months after another bus was similarly destroyed by fire.
Monday’s incident occurred outside the Macarthur Square shopping centre in Campbelltown before 11am, with heat from the burning Busabout passenger bus activating nearby sprinklers.
Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the bus “well alight”, a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesperson said.
CAMPBELLTOWN | A bus has been severely damaged by fire on Kellicar Rd. The driver and all passengers self-evacuated prior to #FRNSW arrival. The heat from the fire caused the activation of fire sprinklers in Macarthur Square. 🎥: @jules1985latte pic.twitter.com/iAbMuSEnFc
— Fire and Rescue NSW (@FRNSW) August 16, 2021
Video footage taken by onlooker Julian Lee shows firefighters running to extinguish the fire as the bus was engulfed in flames with intense smoke billowing from the vehicle.
Two Fire and Rescue NSW crews extinguished the fire, which left the bus “destroyed”.
The scorched wreckage of the bus was due to be “towed away” later on Monday, the Fire and Rescue NSW spokesperson said. There were no injuries resulting from the blaze.
Monday’s fire was the second such incident in 2021. A similar blaze destroyed a bus in Glebe in January. An Office of Transport Safety Investigations inquiry into that incident is ongoing.
An investigation into a 2016 fire that closed all lanes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge found the cause to be a short circuit in the passenger bus’s engine bay.
The Fire and Rescue NSW spokesperson told Guardian Australia on Monday that they “cannot yet draw any connection” to previous incidents. “Investigations as to the cause are ongoing,” they said.
Transport for NSW confirmed the OTSI would also undertake an investigation “to determine the cause of the fire” in Campbelltown.
