VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: U1 bus going up in flames on campus

The Social Sciences building and Radcliffe have been evacuated after a U1 bus went up in flames early this morning.

Emergency services were seen at the site but according to the SU no one was hurt but it has been advised that students and staff use alternative routes to get around campus.

bus 5 Fireman Sam and co were on the scene to take down the fire that engulfed the bus.

WBS second year student Jessica Burns was at the scene and described the events on Gibbet Hill Road.

She said: “When we pulled up on site, the back of the bus was already on fire. I’m not sure what exactly happened but it has been said there was a malfunction with the tank.

“Within about 10 minutes the whole bus was destroyed, leaving just the frame behind. When the firemen arrived they got straight to it but struggled to tame it.

“When we had got there everyone had already got off the bus and the passengers didn’t appear to be on site.”

Jessica captured the mighty fire that engulfed the U1 that the firefighters struggled to control:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN7AJTeBD7g[/youtube]

The fire took hold just 22 minutes after a 24 hour strike by local fire services began.

Nobody was hurt in the incident.

The bus driver, a man in his late 40s, told the Coventry Telegraph: “It just happened all of a sudden – it was really quick.

“One minute, there was a bit of smoke, and then the next minute, the bus was on fire. It was really frightening.

“I had seven passengers, and I moved them away from the bus because the fire had taken hold at the back.

“A passenger had called out to me, saying there was smoke coming out from the back seats.

“Within seconds, the whole bus was full of smoke and we could see the flames.”

A spokesman for Warwick University said: “Staff and students had to be evacuated from the social sciences building because of the thick smoke.

“Conference delegates at the university’s Radcliffe House conference venue also had to be evacuated.”