Two buses were destroyed in a fire at a council depot in Bath yesterday.

The vehicles, owned by Bath and North East Somerset Council, went up in flames late yesterday afternoon, causing £12,000 worth of damage.

It is understood that flames spread from one to the other, and it is not known what triggered the fire at Windsor House at Windsor Bridge.

Two coaches were completely burnt out and a further seven were damaged in the blaze.

Fire investigators were due to examine the scene this afternoon and bring in police crime scene investigators if it was thought the fire had been started deliberately.

Detective Inspector Andy Gwyther is heading up the case and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

He said: “I believe that it was probably vandalism caused by kids and it probably took more than one person.

“We were lucky that there wasn’t more damage, we could have lost all the coaches.

“The schools are going back this week and we are just appealing to anyone who hears any whispers or sees anything on Facebook to get in contact.”

The damaged buses were specially designed to transport disabled adults and children.

DI Gwyther said the culprits obviously did not care about the consequences of their actions and the people they were hurting by destroying the coaches.

He also warned that arson attacks could quickly get out of hand and injure innocent people or the vandals themselves.

He said: “There is a high probability that some sort of accelerant, probably petrol, was used in this incident and there are very high risks involved with that.

“If you are dousing petrol on a vehicle and then throwing on a match then you can get engulfed with that.”

A spokesman for B&NES Council said the vehicles would be replaced as quickly as possible.

He said: “The Council deplores the actions of the mindless vandals that perpetrated this crime.

“Two buses were completely burnt out – another seven suffered minor damage but we hope to have these operational by Thursday.

“The Council anticipates having enough vehicles to cover our services for disabled adults and children – contingency plans are in place if for any reason we don’t by utilising our network of private operators.”

The council parks buses used for school and community transport in a car park at the site, where it has its main vehicle depot.

The rest of the building is the former Bath Chronicle office.

Eight firefighters put out the flames after being called to the car park at 5.39pm.  Smoke could be seen from a wide area around the site, prompting a series of 999 calls.

Eyewitness Mark Wishart said he spotted the smoke from The Park tavern pub, in Park Lane, and walked over to the site to see what was happening.

The 47-year-old, from Weston, said: “The fire engines were turning up as I arrived at the gates and there was quite a crowd of people who followed them in.

“There was a lot of smoke and the wind was blowing the wrong way so I couldn’t smell anything but I imagine people down wind would have smelt it quite strongly.”

Anyone with information about how the fire was started is asked to contact Bath police on 0845 4567000.

* On Friday night, crews from Bath fire station pulled a man from the river in the same area.  The man – thought to be in his 50s – was rescued at 10.28pm and handed over to an ambulance crew.

Picture: Mark Wishart