Popular tour bus engulfed by flames in freak fire during 4WD sand dune adventure ride in Lancelin

Tourists were swiftly evacuated from a tour bus before it became engulfed by flames during a popular 4WD adventure tour north of Perth Thursday afternoon.

Volunteer firefighters responded to the Australian Pinnacle Tours vehicle at about 2pm after it was taken over by flames in Lancelin, 90 minutes north of the city, during a 4WD and sandboarding adventure at the Lancelin sand dunes.

Pinnacle Travel Group said no passengers were onboard when the fire took over, and no injuries were sustained. The company said the cause of the fire was unknown.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests and staff is our highest priority. We commend our driver for their calm, swift and professional response, which included moving guests to a safe location, alerting the emergency services, attempting to control the fire where safe to do so, and arranging the immediate deployment of an alternate vehicle to collect all passengers,” a spokesperson said.

The event was described as “sad news” by the Lancelin community Facebook page.

It is one of the business’ three vehicles used in their wildly popular 45-minute adventure rides “through the pristine white sand dunes”.

“We are immensely grateful to the Lancelin Volunteer Firefighters for their prompt attendance and for safely extinguishing the fire,” the tour operator said.

The company said the incident was “isolated” and it would be conducting checks of its two other 4WDs before they launched back into service.

“There’s no indication of any issue affecting the remaining fleet,” the spokesperson said.

“Pinnacle Travel Group maintains high standards of service and maintenance across our fleet of 90-plus vehicles, with all vehicles subject to regular inspections.”

The burnt vehicle was set to be delivered to Perth on Friday, while teams were working on the sand clean-up in the affected area.