Sound Transit bus catches fire in downtown Seattle

pattymphillips said on December 13, 2009 at 2:53 PM

Thank you for all the great comments and praise for the bus driver

donttasemebro said on December 10, 2009 at 7:38 PM

what's with all the Seattle people making profiles and chatting up Spokane news websites.

ralphcranden said on December 10, 2009 at 7:23 PM

My guess, the brake drum seized up due to frozen water in the air brake line. The over heated brake caused the tires to catch fire and explode. The tires run about 100psi. Three other coaches of that style suffered siezed brakes this morning, but were lucky enough to pull over before they cought fire.

comiccon2010 said on December 10, 2009 at 5:49 PM

its a faulty design flaw, . and is just starting to flair up now

graham said on December 10, 2009 at 4:39 PM

That sucks, people can't smoke on the bus, but the bus can smoke.

dede1978 said on December 10, 2009 at 2:11 PM

Actually mhann, I work in 2 Union Square, where the bus was and it didn't get towed away until about 9:30 or so. At least two hours after the article states it was cleared. Good to hear no one was hurt, and kudos to the driver for getting everyone off safely.

mhann said on December 10, 2009 at 1:59 PM

I'm curious what exactly the explosions were, to be so loud. I was at 8th & Madison, inside behind double-pane windows, and after hearing the first bang I expected to look out and see a really bad accident on I-5. The second one, not long after, sounded about as loud to me. Also, for what it's worth, the article above states that "the bus was transported out of downtown around 7:15 a.m. and the streets were re-opened.". Actually, when I walked by the scene at 8:30 a.m. it was still there, with the back end up on jacks. Union was still closed also.

ljking5 said on December 10, 2009 at 8:50 AM

Hi btbaum. I can't find your video of the fire in Your News on KING5.com. Could you try again or submit it to newstips@king5.com? Thanks!

doc77 said on December 10, 2009 at 8:48 AM

I was also on the bus; actually the last one off besides the driver. The large boom occurred just as the bus had stopped. The smoke begin slowly at that point and began to ocme into the bus but not overwhelmingly so. People were a bit upset so I decided to get off at that point. One of the riders was asking the driver for an extinguisher but the driver was talking on he phone; I assume talking to the transit center. I got off and then he got off and brought the extinguisher with him. Before he could get to the back right wheelwell, which was fairly engaged with open flame, a second large boom went off. The driver was able to, to all appearances, dowse the flame at the rear right. I walked to work at that point but, apparently, the bus became fully engaged with smoke and some flame in the next 20 minutes.

the_realist said on December 10, 2009 at 8:22 AM

comiccon2010 - It is a component failure, not an attribute of the actual bus design. This component failure could be from a manufacturing defect, or lack of maintenance. The later being the most likely.

comiccon2010 said on December 10, 2009 at 7:58 AM

this is the same thing that happened in federal way but the whole bus was totalled. another faulty bus design

the_realist said on December 10, 2009 at 7:38 AM

bigdon - What point are you trying to make? The result would be the same, except the ‘explosion’ noises would be much louder (concussion propagation). You realize to build a tunnel in the 21st century you must have sufficient ventilation systems in place to evacuate substantial amounts of smoke? Even the I-90 tunnel, which was built over 50 years ago, has enough ventilation to evacuate most car/bus/truck fires. You can keep your uneducated fear mongering to yourself.

vjac23017 said on December 10, 2009 at 7:37 AM

I was on the bus that caught fire, sitting in the rear of the bus when the events all started to unfold. I don’t know the bus drivers name and now wish I had taken the time to ask him it when I began riding this particular commute bus, but I want you to know that he did not leave the bus until ALL of the passengers had left even while there were visible flames coming from the rear of the bus. After all the passengers were safely off the bus, he radioed the situation to your dispatch and then left the bus with the extinguisher trying to put out the fire. During the whole ordeal, he remained calm and in control. He deserves much praise and compliments for how he handled a very scary situation since there were several loud explosions, it is easy to find fault in people when you want to-how about saying Thank you for thinking of others instead of yourself first.

vjac23017 said on December 10, 2009 at 7:35 AM

I was on the bus that caught fire, sitting in the rear of the bus when the events all started to unfold. I don’t know the bus drivers name and now wish I had taken the time to ask him when I began riding this particular commute bus, but I want you to know that he did not leave the bus until ALL of the passengers had left even while there were visible flames coming from the rear of the bus. After all the passengers were safely off the bus, he radioed the situation to your dispatch and then left the bus with the extinguisher trying to put out the fire. During the whole ordeal, he remained calm and in control. He deserves much praise and compliments for how he handled a very scary situation since there were several loud explosions. My thanks to him, please give praise where due and stop standing on tuna fish cans about political views

btbaum said on December 10, 2009 at 7:33 AM

I was on this bus, I caught video of it on my cellphone and uploaded it to younews, but it has yet to be approved for posting. I second the notion that people were on the bus when the first explosion went off, and as people were getting off the bus after that, someone yelled 'FIRE', which is obviously not very wise. I'd also say that it wasn't a very wise decision for the driver and others from adjacent buildings to attempt to put out the fire. Considering the equipment they had (tiny handheld fire extinguishers) and that there were contents under pressure, they were way too close to the source of the fire and did not have enough contents to adequately put it out. They should have gotten out of the way and directed other people to as well. I'm just glad no one was hurt.

bigdon said on December 10, 2009 at 7:22 AM

Whoa!! Good thing that didn't happen in the Viaduct Replacement Tunnel...

bigdon said on December 10, 2009 at 7:19 AM

Whoa! Good thing that didn't happen in the Viaduct Replacement Tunnel...

guynoirprivatei said on December 10, 2009 at 7:19 AM

While I'm glad no one was injured, this does point out how vulnerable people are when in confined spaces/places. Hopefully ALL responsible persons receive adequate training. Also, this reinforces in my mind the waste associated with too many transit systems (organizations) here in the puget sound area. It looks to me like a kind of proventualism is preventing us from moving to a more streamlined operation. In the immediate area where I live, the following publically funded operations exist; I see their busses nearly every day: Sound Transit Community Transit King County Metro D.A.R.T. Everett Transit Senior Citizens (of Snohomish County) in addition, in the wider area, the UW operates its own fleet, as does a contractor for Microsoft. There is Way Too Much administrarive overhead being spent & wasted here; it's time some of these systems were merged/streamlined. Some 'clearly' should be sub-agencies or departments of a unified regional authority.

diana222 said on December 10, 2009 at 7:13 AM

I was walking up the street about 2 blocks from the bus when it exploded the second time, I heard the first one from inside my parking garage. It DID sound like a bomb! I saw people running towards me, probably from the bus. Thick, black, very stinky smoke was pouring out of the side and soon the flames became visible. I ran up to my office and found a camera, took a lot of pics. An hour later there was still a lot of smoke, but it looks like they finally have it out now, at 7:00 am.

deman said on December 10, 2009 at 7:05 AM

I had just walked past that intersection. My office overlooks the entire scene. It was an articulated bus. Fire was billowing out the right rear wheel well of the back half of the bus. It started with a huge explosion and was followed by a smaller explosion. Sounded like a bomb. Though, I suspect it was the compressor for the breaks or something and then a tire blew. It was definitely loud and was an unnatural sound to hear downtown...especially at such an early hour.

subdude60 said on December 10, 2009 at 7:00 AM

There were people on the bus during the fire, I was one of them. The driver opened all of the doors when the explosion noise was heard. But a taxi was blocking the back door, so as the fire started, people were still on the bus waiting for the taxi to move. I was glad that we were not moving on the freeway when this occurred. Great work by the bus driver!!