School bus catches fire in Ras Al Khaimah

The empty bus burst into flame on Thursday afternoon

A screen grab from a video showing the bus that caught fire while parked outside Adhen School for Basic Education in Ras Al Khaimah.

A fire broke out in a school bus in Ras Al Khaimah on Thursday.

The bus was parked outside Adhen School for Basic Education, a mixed public school with a population of 450 pupils aged between 6 and 9, when the fire erupted.

RAK Civil Defence said they received a report about the fire at 2.24pm. They dispatched firefighters from Ghail area, who extinguished the blaze.

Eyewitnesses said the fire began in the front of the bus before spreading to the tyres.

“I was driving by the school when I saw the fire coming from the engine side of the bus,” said Mohammed Rajab, a local resident.

The fire destroyed the front quarter of the bus. Courtesy RAK Civil Defence

“It was huge and then we heard an explosion sound coming from the front tyres,” he said.

“Police and firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire."

A teacher at a nearby school, who preferred not to be named, said the bus was empty at the time of the fire.

“The driver had ended his shift and parked the bus in front of the school,” the teacher said.

Emirates Transport said the last pupil left the bus 20 minutes before the fire began. It said that, contrary to media reports, the engine had not been left running and the bus had not been driven into a wall.

Civil Defence and Emirates Transport are working together to determine the cause of the fire.