A brave, school bus driver narrowly escaped death on a Tullow road on Monday when the bus he was driving burst into flames just minutes after he pulled it over.
The driver of the CIE school bus was driving towards Rathoe from Tullow after dropping off his charges to Tullow Community School when he began to smell something unusual.
Then he noticed thick black smoke coming from the back of the bus. Knowing there was something seriously wrong, he pulled the bus over, according to Tullow gardaí.
After forcing his door open, he managed to exit the bus safely. But just moments later, he was shocked when the entire vehicle burst into flames. The fire which was attended to by teams from Tullow Fire Station, caused the main Bunclody Road to be closed to traffic for most of Monday morning.
Gardai and CIE are investigating the incident which they they believe was an accident.
