Holy cow! Barbecued bus, anyone?

As you can seen one of the buses that serves the Fort Washington train station had some technical difficulties. And when I say "technical difficulties", I mean "the rear half of the bus was on fire". (!!!!) This was as close as I could get to it without making it obvious that I was making use of a camera phone. I didn't think the SEPTA supervisors on the scene would be too enthused by my on-the-spot reporting.

Fortunately, from what is being retold among the passengers at the train station, the driver was alone in the bus and he'd been about to start his first run of the day. Passing motorist honked and told the bus driver the vehicle was on fire. The driver exited the bus just as there was a loud BOOM. The first thing that he was asked, upon reporting the problem, was if he'd tried to put the fire out; the answer was a resounding *no*.

If the above sequence of events, as shared among the passengers awaiting the train, is what happened, I don't blame the bus driver. I've seen those travel-sized fire extinguishers carried on buses. I've eaten ice cream cones that are bigger than those things. I think they'd be more useful in assisting a person whose clothes had ignited (God forbid) thanks to an accident or vehicle fire. No way in heck are they designed to put out half-a-bus's worth of flame. That's a job for either Superman or the fire department, depending on which of them arrives first.

I'm glad the only casualty appears to be the bus. I wonder if this will make the news?