Kurnool bus tragedy: Survivors recount memories of smoke, flames

Apart from the 19 lives that were lost when a Bengaluru-bound AC sleeper bus caught fire in Kurnool, the tragedy has left 23 survivors who are struggling to cope with the trauma they have been left with in the aftermath of the incident. 

On Tuesday, four survivors recounted to DH the rapidity with which the disaster unfolded, the sensation of being suffocated by the smoke, and the desperate, bare-handed fight to break free from the inferno. 

Manempally Satyaranayana, a 27-year-old man from Khammam, was among the first to notice the emergency around 3 am, waking up to the “smell of burnt tyre.” By the time he rushed to the driver’s cabin, which was empty, the flames had begun to envelope the bus.  

The emergency exit proved useless, forcing passengers to resort to smashing the windows. While four or five others struggled to break the toughened glass, one passenger did succeed in shattering it, sustaining severe injuries in the process. 

For Musaluri Sriharsha, a 25-year-old software engineer, the horror was amplified by total darkness. Woken by noise and the smell of smoke, he said, “One minute after I woke up, we were not able to see anything. It went black completely.” 

Faced with the blinding smoke, he, along with two other passengers, struggled to break the side windows with their bare hands, having found no tools. Sriharsha witnessed two children and their parents escape first before following them through the jagged opening. 

The fire spread quickly and there was no time to think nor help the other passengers. “The smoke got very heavy. You could not even breathe,” said Satyaranayana, who noted that many passengers lost consciousness inhaling the fumes. 

The narrow escape of Ashwin Reddy, 36, who was travelling to Bengaluru for a job interview, highlights the extremity of the situation. After failing to smash the glass, a small, half-open window offered a sliver of hope. 

Ashwin tried to squeeze through but got his left leg stuck in the frame. It was a fellow passenger, Aakash, 31, a sales executive from Bidar, who rushed to his aid, and pulled his l
eg free. 

Aakash later confirmed that he and four others managed to escape by successfully kicking open a window near the driver’s seat. 

While Sriharsha escaped with minor injuries, Satyaranayana sustained a severe leg fracture that requires surgery, and Ashwin suffered injuries on his hand, while attempting to smash the glass.