The bus with sleeping biathletes flared up like a match. The incident was covered up for a month.

A dramatic story happened to the biathlon team. Peacefully sleeping athletes found themselves in a dire situation when their bus burst into flames a few meters from a gas station and burned to the ground in a few minutes.

The club hid a high-profile accident from the public for a whole month, but could not stand it and announced a fundraiser to eliminate the consequences of the incident and help the parents.

Unexpected fire in the early morning

The incident involving biathletes occurred in early October, but all this time the general public was not informed about this. The junior team of the student sports club from Poland “Schitnik” went to the city of Katowice early in the morning to pass physical training tests.

At the very beginning, nothing foreshadowed trouble. The bus covered part of the way and made a short stop around 6 am for refueling. At that moment, the athletes inside were sleeping peacefully, and the coach went to the gas station building. Almost immediately after that, smoke poured from under the hood of the bus, and it caught fire.

The biathletes who were in the cabin immediately woke up and began to run out of the bus engulfed in flames in horror. It is hard to imagine what was happening in the head of the coach at that moment when he left the building and saw such a picture.

It was a great luck that none of the athletes died in this terrible fire, because there was a gas station next to the burning bus. Biathletes escaped with only experienced stress. But the bus could not be saved. It is now beyond repair, as it burned to the ground. Also, all the uniforms that were inside, and the personal belongings of the athletes, burned down.

“We just can’t live without you!”

The incident was not announced to the general public for more than a month. But in a small Polish club during this time they could not find the money to purchase a new vehicle. Biathletes, on the other hand, need to train and perform, and without a bus it is almost impossible to do this. The club had to announce a general fundraiser on a specialized platform.

— Monday, October 3, 2022 is definitely one of those days that we would like to erase from our memory and the history of our club. We are a small biathlon club, and our club’s funds allow us to cover only a small part of these losses. With the help of the parents of our athletes, we are trying to recover from this event, but the funds raised, unfortunately, do not allow us to cover all the losses and, above all, to buy a bus. We are in a hopeless situation and that is why we ask you to help us raise funds for a new bus. We just can’t live without you! — stated in the accompanying post of the club.

Now the young biathletes from the “Schitnik” can only hope for the generosity of the Polish citizens. But so far, less than a quarter of the required amount has been collected.