By April Mitchinson

TRAGEDY WAS narrowly avoided yesterday afternoon when fire ripped through a Dundee bus as it travelled towards the city centre.

Smoke began to billow from the rear of the single decker Stagecoach East Scotland bus as it travelled down Broughty Ferry Road towards Blackscroft around 2.20pm.

Worried passengers alerted the driver who pulled over immediately and helped guide passengers away from the burning vehicle.

Motorists also came to the rescue phoning 999 as the bus was quickly engulfed—sending flames and smoke high in the air.

There were initial fears that the fuel tank could ignite and explode but firefighters were able to control the blaze.

The incident forced the closure of Broughty Ferry Road from Peep O’ Day Lane to Blackscroft for over two hours.

A recovery vehicle later removed the stricken bus.

Yesterday’s inferno was the latest in a series of fires and accidents involving Stagecoach East Scotland buses in recent years.

At least four buses have caught fire in the last 20 months while five serious road accidents have also occurred in the same period.

Blackness Road fire and rescue station watch manager Grahame Beats said passengers had had a lucky escape.

Mr Beats said, “It was extremely lucky that it happened on a quiet bit of road and that the driver and all 10 passengers on the bus made it off in time.

“These buses are predominantly made of fibreglass—which is highly flammable and tends to accelerate the fire—so the bus will probably be a write-off.

“It appears to have started in the engine compartment of the bus but there will be a further investigation once it’s towed back to the depot.”

The bus involved was the 79A Strathtay service.

Sergeant Wilson Gove, of Tayside Police, said, “As far as we know the fire started in the engine compartment of the bus and there is nothing more sinister than a mechanical issue with the vehicle.

“However, we would appeal for any passengers or witnesses to get in touch and provide a statement to help our investigation.”

Just last month a Stagecoach East Scotland bus had to be evacuated after its dashboard caught fire while at Dundee Station. All the passengers and the driver were unhurt but fire crews were called to extinguish the flames.

And late last year around 20 people had to be evacuated when their Arbroath-Dundee bus caught fire.

In the most serious recent accident an elderly woman was taken to hospital when two cars crashed into a Stagecoach East Scotland bus that had caught fire while travelling on the A90 Dundee to Forfar road.

The fire, in October 2006, burned with such force sections of the road melted and the dual carriageway was closed in both directions for over two hours.

Stagecoach East Scotland operations director, Steve Walker, said, “I can confirm that at approximately 2.20pm today, a fire broke out on service 79A travelling into Dundee on Broughty Ferry Road.

“All passengers were evacuated by our driver and no one was injured.

“We take incidents such as this extremely seriously and a full investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.”

Stagecoach East Scotland is one of the largest bus operators in the UK carrying over 23 million passengers a year and operating over 15 million miles.

The fleet includes low floor easy access buses which feature step-free entrances, room for buggies and wheelchair access.