Kurnool: Preliminary investigations into the tragic bus fire in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, which claimed 19 lives, suggest that the explosion of a consignment of smartphones may have worsened the blaze, police officials said on Friday.
The bus, operated by V Kaveri Travels, was en route from Hyderabad to Bengaluru when it caught fire near Chinnatekur village between 3 a.m. and 3.15 a.m. on Friday. The vehicle was carrying 234 smartphones worth ₹46 lakh, reportedly owned by a Hyderabad-based businessman and destined for delivery in Bengaluru.
Survivors told police they heard multiple explosions as flames engulfed the bus. Investigators believe the fire began under the front section of the bus after it ran over a bike lying on the road. The bike, which may have been involved in an earlier accident, got stuck under the vehicle, and leaking petrol likely ignited the fire.
The blaze spread rapidly to the luggage cabin beneath the seats, where the smartphone consignment was stored. Forensic experts suspect that the lithium batteries in the handsets exploded, intensifying the inferno. Additional explosions from the bus’s air conditioning system batteries further aggravated the situation, said P. Venkataraman, Director-General of the Andhra Pradesh Fire Services Department.
Venkataraman said that the heat was so intense it melted the aluminium flooring. Bones and ash were seen falling through the melted sheets.
Sixteen teams from the Police and Forensic Departments are investigating the incident. Ten forensic teams are conducting DNA tests on the charred remains, while four teams are probing the nature of the explosions. Two teams are focused on chemical analysis.
Of the 46 passengers on board, 19, including two children, were killed. The remaining 27 managed to escape. Among the deceased, six were from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two each from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and one each from Odisha and Bihar. One victim remains unidentified.
(Inputs from IANS)