Firefighters tackle school bus fire near Paengaroa

An eyewitness has provided this image of what appears to be a school bus on fire in Paengaroa. Photo / Grayson Ottaway

Fire has ripped through a bus in Paengaroa in what one eyewitness called "a hell of a blaze".

Two fire trucks and firefighters attended the scene on Maungarangi Rd near State Highway 33 after calls were made about the blaze at 3.51pm Wednesday, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said.

Maketū fire chief Shane Gourlay said there were about half a dozen students from the Te Puke area on the school bus.

Gourlay said a St John Ambulance also attended the fire on his request but no one needed medical attention.

He said the bus was well ablaze when firefighters from Maketū arrived and a crew from Te Puke station with a water tanker also attended.

They were at the scene for about 60 minutes.

Gourlay said the male bus driver told him that one of his passengers noticed smoke coming from the rear of the bus, so he pulled the bus off the highway into Mahurangi Rd, and everyone managed to get to safety.

"Our crews did well to contain and extinguish the fire, unfortunately the bus is gutted. Thankfully no one was hurt."

Photographs from the scene from eyewitness Grayson Ottaway showed several firefighters hosing down the Go Bus bus.

Ottaway was returning home on SH33 after visiting his mother in Rotorua when he noticed a lot of smoke and initially thought it was coming from a house on fire.

An eyewitness has provided this image of what appears to be a school bus on fire in Paengaroa. Photo / Grayson Ottaway

It wasn't until he got closer to the intersection of Maungarangi Rd that he realised it was a bus.

Then crews from Te Puke Fire Station turned up and took charge of traffic management so motorists could keep away from the burning bus, Ottaway said.

"I hopped out of my vehicle and took some photographs.

"It was a hell of a blaze ... I was standing about 150 metres from the bus and the heat was pretty intense there for a while."

Ottaway said he was at the scene for about 10 minutes and at one stage there were five appliances at the scene.

He said the bus was extensively damaged.

Go Bus chief executive Calum Haslop could not be contacted for comment.