Bus fire man gets to Australia for surprise party

A County Donegal man who was on a bus that caught fire at the start of a 10,649 mile (17,138 km) journey to surprise his oldest friend on his 50th birthday in Australia has successfully made it for the big day.

Ciaran Crawford and all 14 other passengers managed to safely exit the bus before it went up in flames last week in Letterkenny.

Despite the delay, Mr Crawford managed to make his connecting flight to Doha in Qatar and then safely on to Sydney to make John Shiels's birthday.

"He is one of my oldest friends. We haven't seen in each other in years and I wasn't going to miss it," he said.

Mr Crawford told BBC News NI he could never have expected his journey to begin in the fashion it did.

As he boarded the Expressway coach in Letterkenny, which was bound for Dublin airport, he took his seat ready for the four-hour journey to the airport to begin.

But just before 21:00 local time, only moments into the journey, the bus came to an abrupt stop at the side of the road.

"The engine must have been overheating at that stage and I could see the driver calling the depot," Mr Crawford explained.

The driver then proceeded to turn the bus around and attempted to gingerly return the vehicle to Letterkenny.

"Then there was a big bang and everything conked out," he said.

Mr Crawford said he then witnessed thick black smoke bellowing out of the back of the bus.

He said that in spite of what appeared to be a very grave situation, there was no sense of panic among passengers, saying "everyone remained calm throughout".

"The driver then came down the bus and tried to put it out with the fire extinguisher," he said.

"Everyone was able to get up and walk off the bus as he was trying to put it out. We were able to get the luggage doors open and get everything off, and then we all stood well back".

"There was some crackling and sparking and a couple more hefty bangs", Mr Crawford said.

"We were well enough away but as it started to go there was some heat coming off it - within half an hour it was just a shell."

Mr Crawford was quick to praise the actions of bus driver and his ability to remain calm and collected during the entire ordeal.

"He did a great job and he did the right thing to turn around at the first sign of trouble," Mr Crawford said.

Another bus pulled up within 30 minutes and all 15 passengers boarded and made the onward journey.

Mr Crawford made it to the airport at 01:00 local time, with a little time to spare before his departure.

He said there wasn't much chat on the bus before the fire, but after the blaze, everyone was chatting to everyone.

He said himself and a fellow passenger, George Ballentine, sat in the departure lounge and talked about the surprising turn their travel plans had taken.

Bus company Bus Éireann said a "comprehensive and thorough investigation" into the cause of the incident in Letterkenny will take place and said it was an "exceptionally rare occurrence in our fleet".

Mr Crawford said his friend's face when he walked into his house in Sydney was "a complete picture".

He said the pair hadn't seen each other since Mr Shiels and his family emigrated from Ireland back in 2015 and were quick to share stories and catch up.

Mr Crawford said the pair shared great food, great laughs and perhaps one too many pints to celebrate Mr Shiels's half a century on Earth.