A passenger on a bus that went on fire on its way from Donegal to Dublin has praised the driver for how calmly he reacted.
The Bus Éireann Expressway service was en-route from Letterkenny on Thursday when it became engulfed in flames at around 8:30pm at the Dry Arch Roundabout.
The fire service battled to bring the blaze under control while Gardaí managed traffic in the area.
Some 15 passengers were onboard at the time.
Ciarán told Highland Radio what happened.
"It's a normal bus journey, we headed out the dual carriageway," he said.
The coach on fire. Picture by: Clare McCahill"You're on your phone, you don't really be paying attention.
"The bus pulled in [and] I wasn't sure if was to pick somebody up or something like that.
"We stopped for about 10 minutes and the bus driver announced we were going to have to head back to Letterkenny because of a problem that had arose on the bus.
"We were heading back, we got on to the dual carriageway, he pulled over again."
'Smoke started to appear'
He said the bus moved again but "died" in the middle of the Dry Arch Roundabout.
"Smoke started to appear at the back of the cabin," he explained.
"The bus driver came down; he did a great job I have to say.
"He just asked us all to get up and we all left the bus."
He said as the bus was dead, some people couldn't get to their belongings.
"We couldn't open the luggage doors, and there were people going on holidays with passports in there.
"There was smoke coming out of the back at this stage, and it was starting to flare up."
'Everybody was very calm'
Ciarán said everybody stayed calm, and a number of people managed to open the luggage compartment.
"We got the doors opened and then there was small flames just as that was happening," he said.
"We all moved back, we got all the bags out and everybody was very calm.
"I have to commend the bus driver too... you wouldn't think it was what it was, everything went pretty well.
"We all got off, and everybody was safe and then the Guards came.
"I don't think there was any real danger at anytime and I would really speak highly of the man who was driving the bus.
"I didn't catch his name, but he's a cool enough customer."
"I've seen the video of it afterwards and it looked very, very scary - but at the time everybody was pretty calm and cool about it," he added.
