On Monday morning, 19 October, a Qbuzz service bus burned on the N371 in the village of Hoogersmilde, in the province of Drenthe. NOS, filing from Persbureau Meter, writes that it was on the Assen–Steenwijk route. The driver stopped in time. All passengers and the driver got out. No one was injured.

RTV Drenthe says there were four passengers besides the driver, and that the vehicle is a Mercedes Citaro G — an articulated bus, a “harmonica bus”. Firefighters, called at about 9:15, could not save it: it burned to the frame, with thick black smoke. The cause is unknown. This is not a crash with casualties, and it is not a verdict on maintenance or on the engine.

NU.nl, citing a safety-region spokesman, notes that the driver saw the smoke and pulled the bus to the roadside. A few minutes later it was fully alight. The N371 was closed between Hoogersmilde and Smilde for recovery and to clean the carriageway. The closure is not a long-term measure; it is for Monday’s operation.

RTV Drenthe places the fire at the N371 junction with the Oranjekanaal. The water board is checking whether diesel reached the canal. That is a check, not a confirmed spill. A few nearby houses are being checked for smoke and heat; no proven structural damage had been announced at the time of the reports.

Qbuzz steered passengers onto another bus towards their destination. The company said that until noon it would not serve several stops towards Dieverbrug: Hendrik Oostdraai, Rijksweg 154, Geeuwenbrug and Wildryck. That does not cancel the afternoon timetable; it is a morning hole on the route.

The bus is diesel, not electric, according to firefighters quoted by NOS. The fire does not become a case about electric buses. Until there is a cause, it remains a vehicle fire on a provincial road, with people off in time.

Image: a Qbuzz bus, 15 December 2008, Willem 90, public domain, Wikimedia Commons. A Qbuzz MAN, not Monday’s articulated Citaro and not the wreck.

Sources consulted: Lijnbus uitgebrand in Hoogersmilde, passagiers komen met de schrik vrij — NOS; Chauffeur en passagiers ontkomen aan vlammenzee in Hoogersmilde — RTV Drenthe.