July 6, 2007
The Trolley! The Trolley! The Trolley's on Fire! (UPDATED)
Andrew Wiseman is the author of this post
An orange Old Town Trolley bus burst into flames today just before 6 p.m. on Rhode Island Avenue, NW between 11th and 12th Streets. Before arriving on the scene, this DCist saw and smelled black smoke from outside the Mt. Vernon Square Metro at about 5:50 p.m. and 9th Street was hazy with smoke.
An eyewitness in the house which the bus was in front of said a police officer told her the bus was having mechanical problems and was headed to the repair shop. The eyewitness told us she heard a loud boom from outside and assumed it was people shooting off fireworks. She kept hearing booms then looked outside and saw the bus driver outside the bus with a tow truck nearby and assumed everything was alright. A moment later, she said, "smoke was everywhere." She then looked out the window and saw a "gigantic" flame. She could feel the heat in her room and was worried the house would catch fire. It didn't, but a tree in front of it did briefly. Firefighters arrived within a minute, and put the fire in the tree and the bus out in short order.
Bystanders in a house across the street from the charred bus said they could also feel the heat emanating from the fire.
When this DCist arrived on the scene at about 6 p.m., a number of firefighters and vehicles were on the scene spraying water on the blackened, smoking bus, and Rhode Island was closed from 11th to Logan Circle.
WAMU radio reported that the bus driver was the only person on the bus at the time of the fire and there were no injuries.
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I knew those pig-in-lipstick tourbusses were dangerous. Limit them, and their sheep's clothingless ilk to the Mall and the CBD, I say.
holy crap, i used to live right there in that house. andrew, do you still live on the block? everything ok there?
They are parked, I believe, out in NE. I see them puttering around and have seen a few lots with them... but I wasn't really paying attention as to where. Anyhow, mlb, it was trying to get 'home' to repairs. They don't stay on the Mall when not in service.
This isn't the first time one of those Old Town Trolleys has burst into flames and made DCist. Ah, the Pintos of the DC tour vehicle world.
Darn, I had been considering hitching a ride downtown on a trolley, since hordes of them pass my bus stop on their way down Rhode Island Avenue each morning... I didn't realize they spontaneously combusted on a regular basis.
Old Town Trolley busses are so ugly to me.
Pintos indeed.
It must be terrorists. They got lost on the way to the airport.
There was another Old Town Trolley fire several years ago. I think it was across from National Geographic on M St. There were many tourists on board at the time and it was a serious situation, luckily no one was injured. I believe they run on propane, which is why they seem to catch fire so easily.
It was either the terrorists or those damned un-gentrified kids setting off fireworks!
IMgoph, no, I moved, but I was going to Logan Hardware when i saw it. My friends said nothing was damaged or anything though.
Jesus F look at that thing go. That's fueled by pressurized flammables no question If those were, say, balloon-frame PG County style houses they would have lit off most likely (though with a 1 minute response time maybe not - good work.)
Here's the thing - rough rule of thumb is that one of those propane gas grill canisters is roughly enough to make one house a crater and fully involve its neighbors - these trolley things have got to be toting, what, 20 times as much gas? And with a pretty small trolley fleet, something better than a 1 percent per year catastrophic fire rate?
They're *lucky* (comapratively) that whatever way they've failed has been flamethrower-style on an empty trolley vs. failed pressure vessel style blowing out 1/4 an occupied city block.
(Conventional gas vehicles, or even your normal natural gas fired vehicles, are a whole bunch intrinsically safer than this.)
Explode on public streets once, shame on you. Explode on my streets twice, who is certifying this fleet?
if you'd like more pictures, check out DCFD, they have quite a few there now
I love that the DCist commentariat contains a resident firefighter.
Are we sure it's not Al Queda?
Kiki's photo is really impressive. I'm glad that no person was injured.
Those trolley cars run on propane. It's not the first time they have had an explosion in DC.