A C-1 bus caught fire on East Campus at about 5:27 p.m. Wednesday, Duke Police said. No one was injured.
The bus was leaving the East bus stop heading toward West Campus when several people noticed sparks coming from the bottom rear of the bus near the back tires. Anthony Hatchett, the driver at the time, said a passenger notified him that the vehicle was on fire. He immediately pulled over at the C-2 stop between Gilbert-Addoms and Jarvis Dormitories and evacuated the eight to 10 passengers.
“It was really shocking,” Hatchett said. “I was saying to myself, ‘What could have started this fire?’ There was no indication, so I was really shocked. It’s a first-time experience.”
The fire broke out in the vehicle’s engine compartment. Scorched parts laid on the charred street beneath the bus after emergency crews extinguished the flames.
Junior Kiley Samz was waiting for the bus at the C-2 stop when it pulled up partially on fire. She said she saw gasoline leaking out of the bus as it was evacuated.
“The gas on the street was on fire, then it popped and the whole back was on fire,” she said.
Hatchett said he moved with the passengers and bystanders toward Gilbert-Addoms and watched the back of the bus blaze as they waited for firefighters to arrive.
Capt. Gary Paschall of Durham Fire Department, who was one of the firefighters responding to the situation, said it took firefighters about 10 minutes to arrive on the scene and another 10 to douse the flames.
Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Paschall said the bus was “blazing out the back” and the rear tires were on fire when responders arrived. He estimated the bus was “a total loss,” though no one could confirm the bus’s fate.
It is not the first time a Duke bus has caught fire on campus. In Spring 2006, a fire broke out in the engine compartment of a C-1 parked at the Main West Campus bus stop.
“I wouldn’t say it’s common, but it happens every so often—city buses, Duke buses [catch fire],” Paschall said. “It’s carrying fuel, it’s carrying ignition fluid... it’s sort of its own ticking time bomb, just like a car.”
The Duke University Police Department shut down Campus Drive from the C-2 stop to the Swift Avenue intersection until the fire had been extinguished and a tow truck was on its way. DUPD Officer John Fox, one of the officers who responded to the fire, said no one suffered any injuries from the fire or smoke.
Officers were on the scene to regulate traffic and ensure all passengers and onlookers were safe, Fox said.
The bus was later towed off campus and any remaining debris was cleared.
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