Surat: A van carrying three children to a private tuition class caught fire in Mota Varachha area of the city on Friday morning. Van’s driver said leakage from the petrol tank and a short-circuit led to the fire. The children were taken out safely and no one was injured in the accident. The van owner didn’t have permission to ferry the children.Fire brigade officials said the fire broke out at 7.50 am at the gate of Satellite Society in Mota Varachha. The front portion of the van being driven by Vimal Patel was gutted in the fire.Patel told TOI, “I was on my way to drop the three students to a private tuition class. I had just picked up a student from the society gate and started the vehicle when I smelled petrol. I stopped the van after going to some distance and took out the children safety. By then a short-circuit started the fire in the van in which petrol had begun leaking.”Patel added he drops Gajera School children regularly but doesn’t have the licence to ferry students.Earlier, in January, four class VI students of Seventh Day Adventist School suffered burn injuries when their van carrying 12 pupils had caught fire near BSNL office on Ghod Dod Road. They were on their way to school at Athwalines. Three children sustained 10 per cent burns, while one had a wound on his foot. The other students managed to jump out of the van in the nick of time.After the incident, the RTO, Surat, had checked more than 20 school vans and detained 13 of them for not following prescribed norms of fire safety. Police had also arrested Vishnu Mishra, who was also the van owner, and booked him for negligence under the IPC Section 308 at Umra police station.

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