A Pennsylvania commuter train erupted into an inferno — shooting flames and thick black smoke out the widow of a passenger car — sending hundreds on board, fleeing for safety.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) train was traveling through Delaware County when it caught fire at Crum Lynne Station in Ridley Park on Thursday night at around 6 p.m., according to officials.
The fire broke out in the first car of the six-car train traveling from Philadelphia to Wilmington with around 350 passengers on board. Conductors quickly worked to evacuate all passengers, Fox 29 reported.
Shocking images show bright orange flames and thick black and grey smoke plumes bursting out the first car’s windows.
“It was at some point after that it was discovered that the first car of the train was engulfed in flames, but by that time passengers fortunately had been evacuated,” SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch told the outlet.
Passenger Dnasia Buckner recalled a strange smell on the train just 15 minutes into the trip.
“We had to get up and relocate to another car and then we had to get up and relocate again and that’s when I started to see smoke coming from the side of the train,” Buckner told Fox 29.
She said as they were relocating, people began saying, “the train’s on fire,” but the conductors weren’t, and “eventually, they opened the doors and we got off.”
Buckner shared it appeared to take about 15 minutes to get the hundreds of passengers off the train.
Firefighters were called to the scene to battle the blaze, and no injuries were reported.
The fire is believed to have started underneath the first car, Busch told the outlet.
An investigation has been launched to determine if the train’s engine or something on the track started the fire.
Multiple shuttle buses arrived to pick up the stranded passengers and transport them to their destinations.
Service to Wilmington was halted during the incident as first responders battled the fire, and Amtrak service along the Northeast Corridor was also impacted. However, those Services have resumed, according to Busch and Amtrak.
Busch praised the efforts of the train’s crew and first responders in ensuring that all passengers emerged from the situation safely.
“The pictures really tell the story of how serious this situation was, and fortunately we have an outcome where we don’t have any serious injuries, which is pretty incredible, considering what we’ve seen,” he told CBS News.
“Our crew acted quickly. They’re well-trained, their training kicked in, they did exactly what they were supposed to in terms of getting people off of the train safely.”
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