A passenger bus of Purbasha Paribahan, kept in police custody as evidence in an accident case, was gutted by fire near Karimpur Highway Police Station in Faridpur Sadar upazila on Friday night.
The fire broke out around 10:30pm while the bus was parked in an open field in front of the police station along the Faridpur-Khulna (N7) Highway.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, according to the Fire Service.
Karimpur Highway police station Officer-in-charge (OC) Abdus Salam said he received information about the fire at 10:27pm and found the bus engulfed in flames upon reaching the scene.
Fire Service personnel later extinguished the blaze, but most of the bus had already been damaged.
Sribas Baroi, senior station officer of Faridpur Fire Service and Civil Defence, said they reached the scene after receiving the report at 10:35pm.
The fire was brought under control around 11:10pm after about 35 minutes of efforts, he said.
The cause remains unknown, and investigators are considering several possibilities, including a mosquito coil, cigarette or arson, Baroi said.
According to highway police, the bus was involved in an accident on September 3 on the Dhaka-Khulna Highway near Mechardia Intersection in Nawapara union of Madhukhali upazila.
The bus collided with the rear of a flour-laden truck parked on the roadside, killing the bus supervisor.
The bus was subsequently kept at Karimpur Highway Police Station as evidence in the accident case.
Police said the station was relocated to a new building several months ago, but infrastructure work at the site has not yet been completed.
Seized vehicles are kept in an open field beside the highway in front of the station. The area has no boundary wall.
OC Abdus Salam said arrangements at the new station were still being completed.
He said the incident might have been prevented if the area had been enclosed by a boundary wall.
“The actual cause of the fire is being investigated,” he said.