Children reunited with parents after Cork bus blaze
Parents of teens travelling on a bus that went on fire in Cork yesterday say it was a miracle nobody was badly injured.
The 43 young people were being driven to Cape Clear — where they were to spend three weeks at an Irish college — on board a Galvins coach which caught fire near Innishannon at around 3pm.
The teenagers were quickly evacuated from the bus which was burned to a shell, with many of them losing all of their belongings.
The bus was in the possession of gardaí today where an examination was due to be carried out by public service vehicle inspectors.
The bus is expected to be returned to the owners — Galvins Coaches Dunmanway Ltd — tomorrow, and they will carry out their own investigation into the blaze, which is believed to have started in the luggage hold.
A spokesperson for Galvins said this morning that they had appointed an independent engineer who would carry out an assessment.
Tom Mintern, who had two teenagers on board, said he had driven straight to Innishannon once he heard the news.
“We drove down to see what we could salvage and when we saw the state of the bus we got a right shock,” he said. “When all that was left were steel bars you realise then how lucky they were to escape unhurt.”
Sarah Dineen, 15, from Blackrock, was the last student off the bus.
“We heard a bang and just thought the bus had broken down so we were getting off slowly,” she said “As I was making my way off, the smoke started to get thicker. It was frightening and I’ve lost all of my luggage.
“We couldn’t see getting off the bus and a fire started in the right-hand side once we were off.”
