Fire, Explosion on BoltBus

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rickycourtney

rickycourtney

Conductor
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
1,932
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Fresno, CA
Click the link below and watch the video... it's intense.

The fire appears to have started when the engine overheated. As the news helicopters hovered overhead there was an explosion in the passenger area that knocked out the windows and that an intense fire burned out the passenger area.

NEWTON, Mass. (CBSNewYork) A BoltBus caught fire Monday while on its way from New York City to Boston with nearly 50 people on board.

A spokesperson from Greyhound, which owns BoltBus, told CBS2 the bus was traveling eastbound on Interstate 90 in Newton, Massachusetts when the bus driver noticed smoke and pulled over around 5 p.m.

The bus driver then evacuated the 47 passengers on the bus and called authorities, the spokesperson said. None of the passengers were injured in the incident.

The bus had made a two hour stop in Connecticut to fix a problem, but was overtaken by flames just miles from their final stop.
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Full article and video here.
 
jis said:
The report said that passengers got off with their belongings. I don;t know how to interpret that exactly.
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Well, in the sense that people are frequently shown bringing their carry-ons with them during emergency evacuations of commercial airliners, I suspect that people did the same thing here. But at the same time, it's impossible to see how anyone would have gotten their bags out from underneath the bus. I'd have cleared well away ASAP, for reasons made plainly obvious in the video.

It's amazing to me that the firefighters on the scene permitted traffic to pass by that closely to a bus that was pretty well on fire even before the explosion.
 
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Wow, and this was a Prevost X3-45. I ought to post this on GTE. Greyhound X3-45s assigned to Bolt were built 2008-2009 and equipped with Detroit Diesel Series 60 14-liter 425hp EGR engines. The EGR operates at very high temperatures, so buses can easily overheat and catch on fire. All buses made 2004 and after are prone to fire. Proper maintenance can reduce the fires, but even perfect maintenance cannot completely prevent those newer buses for catching on fire.

Automated fire suppression on some buses can put out a fire before an explosion destroys the entire bus. In those cases, the engine would be busted but the bus usually could be repaired and put back into service with a new engine. I don't think this bus had fire suppression. Greyhound should install fire suppression on all their 2004 and later vehicles before more explosions occur.

Usually, buses burn slowly before exploding. Some buses take one hour to burn to a crisp, if they don't explode first. I think the passengers had enough time to take out their carry-on items, but anything in the cargo hold is probably blown to bits.
 
A good friend of mind works for Prevost and he said today was a mad house at work today obviously as they work backwards to look at a cause. His initial impression is that the internal pressure in either the engine or the fuel tank shouldn't have blown out all the windows like that.
 
Long Train Runnin' said:
A good friend of mind works for Prevost and he said today was a mad house at work today obviously as they work backwards to look at a cause. His initial impression is that the internal pressure in either the engine or the fuel tank shouldn't have blown out all the windows like that.
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I'm guessing the bus was sealed and all the pressure inside just blew. The same thing happened to a Vermont Transit G4500. Notice how every other window was blown out. Every other window on the X3-45 is an emergency exit, unlike MCIs where every window except the middle one is an emergency exit.

I think they should be trying to stop the fires, which would stop the explosions.
 
It honestly looked like a gas explosion to my untrained eye. Big flash of an explosion, but then it was over. It took some time after that for the passenger cabin to become fully engulfed.

Maybe fuel vapor was somehow leaking into the passenger cabin for a while before it could be ignited.

Also, this unit was actually listed on CPTDB as a 2009 model year and is the second 2009 X3-45 owned by BoltBus to be destroyed by an engine fire.
 
rickycourtney said:
It honestly looked like a gas explosion to my untrained eye. Big flash of an explosion, but then it was over. It took some time after that for the passenger cabin to become fully engulfed.

Maybe fuel vapor was somehow leaking into the passenger cabin for a while before it could be ignited.

Also, this unit was actually listed on CPTDB as a 2009 model year and is the second 2009 X3-45 owned by BoltBus to be destroyed by an engine fire.
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I think the model year is 2009 but the bus was built in 2008. The seats seem to be Patriot PTs, not Premiers, which entered production in 2009.
 
An article in the Boston Globe gives some more info from the Massachusetts State Police:

  • The fire began in the bus’s engine, and a buildup of hot gasses inside the burning bus led to an explosion that blew out the vehicle’s windows.
  • No passengers were carrying any hazardous material that could have contributed to the explosion.
  • All 47 passengers were able to retrieve all their belongings.
  • The bus driver is not being charged at this time.
  • The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will investigate whether the vehicle was in violation of any laws.
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
fairviewroad said:
Swadian Hardcore said:
Some buses take one hour to burn to a crisp, if they don't explode first.
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A lesson Swadian gleaned from the most exciting Science Fair project ever! :giggle:
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What?
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Sorry, I was just having a little fun. I only meant that the phrase "Some buses take one hour to burn to a crisp, if they don't explode first" sounds like the hypothesis for a really memorable Science Fair project.
 
I see that and shudder. And can't help thinking how a CNG or propane-fueled bus might do if it caught on fire....
 
I heard that CNG dissipates quickly in the event of a leak, so it wouldn't explode. But if the bus caught on fire and failed to release the CNG, I think everybody would be dead.

Actually, in China there was a sleeper bus that rear-ended a hazmat truck and burst into flames. I think only one person got out alive. That bus had sealed windows.
 

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