I wonder how common, or should that be rare, they are? Are there any statistics for different types of vehicle fire – cars, lorries, buses etc. based on fires per 1,000 vehicles?
Yesterday one of our local buses, a Wilts & Dorset double-decker on the Active 8 route between Andover and Salisbury, caught fire according to BBC News under the dramatic headline Passengers flee double-decker bus fire near Andover.
Then this morning we have another BBC News story London bendy bus catches fire outside Victoria station.
Why not visit south yorkshire, the home of bus fires. 8 so far this year.
I can only recall one serious vehicle fire at Winchester, and that was a Leyland National (NPD111L) around 1975. The bus returned to servce many months later.
In London, bus fires seem to be fairly common, but often they are caused by malicious passengers who seem to think that setting fire to the insides of buses is a productive hobby (the latest bendy bus fire is reputedly one such.)
Fortunately bus fires such as the W&D one, caused usually by fuel leaking onto hot engine parts or by faulty electrics, seem to be very rare.