Kodenchery (Kozhikode): For the people of this sleepy town, what they saw on Sunday was nothing short of a scene straight out of a Bollywood blockbuster.

When a rice straw laden lorry caught fire after coming into contact with an overhead electricity line, the driver was sure that the vehicle would be gutted in no time. He stopped the lorry and jumped out of it to see the tragedy right in front of his eyes. He tried to put out the fire, but by then it had spread all over.

Suddenly out of nowhere appeared Shaji Varghese, who is popularly known as Shaji Pappan in the town. He hopped into the lorry which was already on fire and drove it straight into the playground of a school nearby. And then began his actual heroism. He drove the lorry in a zigzag manner, with rice straws that had turned fireballs falling on the ground one after the other. Soon the headload workers and youngsters joined hands to prevent the truck from getting gutted.

The lorry which came from Karnataka with rice straw caught fire at around 12.30 pm near Kodenchery town.

While Shaji was engaged in the fire rescue act, two fire tenders from the Mukkam Fire Station arrived at the spot. The fire force officials, police, KSEB officials and Uralungal labour contract society workers joined hands to douse the rice straws that were burning in the school playground.