11-Year-Old Braves Fire, Saves Six From Bus

By Minati Singha

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Fire personnel spray water on the tourist bus from Madhya Pradesh, which caught fire at Kalpana Chhak (PTI Photo)

BHUBANESWAR: A bus full of pilgrims from Madhya Pradesh caught fire near Puri on Monday killing four persons and injuring 40 others.

The casualties would have been much higher had it not been for an 11-year-old boy who braved the flames, broke a window and pulled out three elderly women and as many children.

The Madhya Pradesh Road Transport Corporation bus had left Gwalior 10 days back, carrying 67 people from Rajgarh district on a three-week pilgrimage. The group, which reached Puri on Saturday evening, was returning after visiting the Jagannath temple, when tragedy struck, about 60 km from Puri.

When the bus was on fire, Jitmal, a Class VII student, kept his cool.

“Everyone in the bus was screaming and I realised that all of us were going to die unless something is done fast. I pushed my mother out of the window and was about to jump when I heard the cries of others. I then pulled them up and shoved them out as fast as I could before I jumped out when the fire got close to my feet,” said the boy who studies in a village school at Hinatia in Rajgarh district. The boy received minor injuries in his legs.

Jitmal was among the 65 passengers who survived the fire. “It was a close shave,” said Matro Bai, 75.

“I don’t know how I can narrate this horrific incident when I go back home.”

“Our next stop would have been Gaya,” said Motia Bai, 60, whose husband Badrilal suffered burns.

A motorcyclist chased the bus for about two km to alert the driver about the fire. No one inside the bus had realised that it was being consumed by flames, said an eyewitness.

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