“GOD is good. I am happy to be alive.”
So said Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) bus driver Ricky Estrada after the bus he was driving caught fire at the rear of the vehicle at approximately 1.15 p.m. yesterday. He was driving along the Priority Bus Route (PBR) in the vicinity of the Mt Lambert traffic lights. The bus was not in service and there were no passengers on board.
Estrada reported that after unsuccessfully attempting to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher, he ran out of the bus. He then stood next to a lamppost and kept watch as emergency response personnel from both the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) brought the blaze under control.
UNHARMED: PTSC bus driver Ricky Estrada expresses gratitude as he escaped injury and no passengers were on the bus when it caught fire yesterday at the Mt Lambert intersection on the Priority Bus Route. —Photo: MICHELLE LOUBON
During the fire, several Mt Hope and Mt Lambert residents rushed out of their homes and mistakenly thought the nearby Bermudez biscuit factory was on fire. Drivers appeared dazed as they pulled alongside the factory lane. Some other residents thought their neighbours were burning garbage.
