With the Bengaluru IT body urging a probe into the tragic Kurnool bus fire accident in Andhra Pradesh, recent developments in the case suggest that a shipment of 234 smartphones was inside the bus that exploded when the accident occurred.
Forensic specialists claimed that the explosion from the phone batteries might have contributed to the force of the blast, NDTV reported.
Worth Rs 46 lakh, the smartphones were being shipped as a package by a businessman based in Hyderabad. The consignment was being sent to an e-commerce company in Bengaluru, which would then supply those phones to customers.
Few bystanders reportedly heard the batteries explode as the bus caught fire.
Director-General of the Andhra Pradesh Fire Services Department, P Venkataraman, observed that the electrical batteries used for the AC system of the bus also burst along with the smartphone batteries.
“The heat was so severe that it melted the aluminium sheets on the bus floor,” Venkataraman said.
The initial blaze started at the front end of the bus, where the fuel leakage began. The bike that got stuck under the bus started leaking petrol, which, combined with the heat, sparked the fire and ultimately consumed the entire bus.
Venkataraman also described the gruelling details of the scene, “We saw bones and ash dropping through the melted sheets.”
He further pointed out that a structural flaw was discovered in the construction of the V Kaveri Travels bus.
The accident, which took place on Friday in Kurnool on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru highway, claimed 20 young lives, including the man whose two-wheeler hit the bus. The ill-fated bus was carrying 44 passengers at the time of the accident.
On Saturday, the main bus driver, Miryala Lakshmaiah, was arrested by police after having initially fled the scene of the accident. The second driver is under police custody.
The Ulindakonda Police registered a case against the two bus drivers, based on a complaint filed by one of the survivors, N Ramesh.
