A CNG van, carrying three children of class I and II, caught fire in an accident on Saturday at about 7.15 am in Ghatlodia area. However, the driver stopped the van immediately and rescued all the children before the van was reduced to a metal skeleton. The Maruti Omni van was on its way back after dropping students of Little Flower Primary School in Ghatlodia. It was on its way to drop three children to a nursery nearby. The driver, Ashish Patel, became alert when he smelled of burning electric wires in the van. He quickly stopped the van and took all the children out of it. Within minutes the van caught fire and was engulfed in flames near Heerabaug cross-roads. A fire official present at the spot said, "Once the fire was controlled, we checked the combustion section of the engine. As there was a leakage of lubricating oil, the van caught fire after an electric spark from the spark plug. If the fire had reached the chamber where the gas is filled, the van would have blasted off immediately.'