Sydney driver risks his life trying to extinguish bus fire

A Sydney bus driver has risked his life to try and extinguish a bus fire in Sydney’s CBD.

In the stunning vision, witnesses can be heard yelling for the driver to get out of harm’s way on George Street on Thursday night.

“Get out of there ... look at him laying under the bus,” Brendon Ward can be heard saying.

“Everyone was yelling out to him ‘Don’t go near it, it’s going to explode’ and I was telling him, ‘get away ya’ idiot’.”

Fortunately the fire was doused by the automatic fire suppression system.

By September, 36 buses had caught fire this year following the 40 from 2015.

State Transit CEO Peter Rowley said bus fires were hard to predict but all buses would have the fire suppression gear fitted by the new year.

But the state opposition's transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay said the fact there had been 134 bus fires in four years was alarming.

“What’s concerning about this fire is that it occurred on a relatively new bus,” she said.

“I think the government needs to explain how this happened.”