Gasoline blamed for Chengdu's deadly bus fire

Shanghai, June 8 (Gasgoo.com) Gasoline carried onboard by a passenger was the likely cause of a deadly bus fire that killed 27 people in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu on June 5, xinhuanet.com reported today, citing an investigation official.

Many people, including the bus driver, passengers, rescuers and other witnesses, told the investigators that they had sensed a smell of gasoline before the fire, He Jiansheng, an official of the investigation team, told reporters, adding that traces from the burnt bus were also found to contain substances of gasoline.

In addition, the bus did not use gasoline as fuel, but diesel oil instead, he said. "Therefore, we believe someone had brought gasoline aboard the bus," he said. "The combustion (of the gasoline) might have been triggered by a human error or by someone deliberately."

The blaze occurred at rush hour on Friday morning, when the bus was on its way to downtown Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and caught fire under the Chuanshan Viaduct. There were 25 killed and 76 others injured on the scene. Two injured died in hospital yesterday (Sunday), bringing the death toll to 27.

Passengers carrying propane tanks and other fuel have been responsible for other deadly fires in Chinese public buses, but bombs have also on occasion been found on buses, for instance in Kunming city of neighboring Yunnan province last summer.