83 students escape death

Eight-three students of the Bechem Presbyterian Senior High School in the Brong-Ahafo Region escaped death when the bus carrying them for a tour in Ashanti Region caught fire on Friday morning on the Barekese-Abrepo road.

The bus with the registration number GV 931 Z was completely burnt.

There were no casualties however, some students sustained minor injuries as they tried to escape through the windows of the bus.

The students searched the bus to salvage some of their belongings after fire personnel put out the blaze.

The bus was completely burnt beyond repairs and recognition.

Briefing the Ghanaian Times, Mr Frimong Manso, a tutor of the school, said they were enroute for an excursion at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology when the bus caught fire at Nketia, near Barekese in the Ashanti Region.

He said students in the bus including the driver and himself managed to escape unhurt before the entire bus got burnt.

“Because some of the students escaped through the windows of the bus, some incurred minor injuries,” he noted.

Mr Frimong Manso was grateful to God that they all escaped unhurt.

He said they did not experience any mechanical fault on their way, and therefore, could not comprehend how the bus suddenly caught fire.

Yaw Nkrumah, driver of the bus, told the Times that he did not check the condition of the bus before moving it on the road because another driver had used the bus the day before and reported to him it was in good condition.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known but personnel of the Ghana Fire Service suspected it could be a mechanical fault.