Commuter Train Burns in Philadelphia

Update, Thursday: More videos added. Scroll down.

septa a inquirer

Philadelphia Enquirer photo

A SEPTA TRANSIT RAIL CAR STARTED BURNING around 7 am in west Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wednesday morning. The train was packed with an estimated 500-700 commuters when the fire in the lead car broke out. Some passengers said that they could smell something burning when they boarded the train at the Overbrook stop.

All the passengers were aware of the fire as soon as it flared up and when the train came to an emergency stop, all of them calmly exited the cars, many of them through the emergency windows. WTXF-TV Ch. 29 covered the story and has this interview with one of the evacuees who describes the situation:

The fire was contained to the first (lead) car and there were no reported injuries. The railcar was completely destroyed, but was able to be towed away by locomotive. The Philadelphia school system dispatched a mini-fleet of buses to pickup the stranded passengers and carry them into the city.

Philadelphia is currently suffering from a transit workers strike, but the SEPTA employees are not in the striking union. However, traffic was already chaotic in town before the fire shutdown the tracks for two hours. FD officials say that there is no indication that the fire was in any way related to strike activity.

The Associated Press has a report HERE.

Update:
This video from WTXF shows the fire burning train and recorded the FD’s initial attack on the fire: