Andhra bus fire: Several perish in asleep, charred beyond recognition

In a nightmarish tragedy in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, at least 20 passengers lost their lives in their sleep when a Bengaluru-bound private sleeper bus erupted in flames early Friday, 24 October. Most victims, fast asleep as the fire spread following a collision, never woke — their final moments consumed by smoke and silence.

Officials said 41 people were onboard, including the driver; 21 have been traced, while the rest perished, many burnt beyond recognition.

The tragedy unfolded around 3 am when the Hyderabad-origin bus collided with a two-wheeler on the highway near Veldurthi, igniting a fire that engulfed the vehicle within seconds. In moments, the air was filled with screams, smoke, and searing flames. By the time firefighters reached the spot, the luxury bus had been reduced to a charred shell of twisted metal — its passengers trapped in what survivors described as a “fiery nightmare.”

Among the survivors were a handful of tech professionals who had boarded the bus for work or interviews in Bengaluru. Their stories are those of both luck and loss.

“I was asleep when I woke up to see the bus swallowed in flames,” recalled S. Harika, an IT employee from Chennai and a native of Nellore, her voice trembling as she spoke from a hospital bed. “The fire spread in seconds. Someone broke the rear door — we jumped through it. I hit my head, but I’m alive. That’s all that matters now.”

Another passenger, Surya, a 26-year-old from Hyderabad, had been on his way to a job interview at a top IT firm. “It was around 2:45 am. The flames reached us before anyone could react,” he said, recounting how he leapt from a window nearly 15 feet high to save his life. “My legs are fractured, but I’ll recover. Naveen, another techie I met on the bus, also escaped. We were lucky.”

Witnesses said only a few passengers managed to break the windows or reach the emergency exit in time. “The loud crash woke me up — then there was smoke everywhere. People were shouting, trying to find the door,” said another survivor being treated for minor injuries.

Kurnool district collector A. Siri confirmed that the bus door failed to open immediately due to damaged wiring, worsening the tragedy. “Many victims were asleep and had no time to react. Those rescued are out of danger,” she said, adding that most passengers were from Hyderabad.

As dawn broke over the smouldering wreckage, rescue teams continued their grim task of identifying the victims — a challenge made harder by the extent of the burns.

What began as an overnight journey between two cities ended in a trail of grief and unanswered questions — how a spark turned into an inferno so quickly, and why safety systems failed when lives depended on them most.

For the families awaiting their loved ones at Bengaluru’s bus terminal that morning, all that arrived were whispers of tragedy and the charred echoes of a night that began in sleep and ended in sorrow.

With PTI inputs