SEPTA train catches fire, passengers evacuated in Delaware County
RIDLEY PARK, Pa. - Scary moments for SEPTA passengers traveling in Delaware County after a Regional Rail train caught fire.
About 350 passengers on board were evacuated and waited at the stop for transportation to their destination.
(Courtesy: Jake Chmielowski)
What we know:
A SEPTA train leaving Philadelphia caught fire somewhere in Delaware County.
The train was heading to Delaware when services were halted near Crum Lynne due to the fire about 6:15 Thursday evening.
SEPTA officials say it started in the first car of the six-car train. They said it affected the Regional Rail train on the Wilmington-Newark line and had left Center City when there was a report of smoke.
No injuries were reported.
What they're saying:
"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 explained.
A woman on the train, Dnasia Buckner, described the scene saying everything was fine when they left Philadelphia, but somewhere between Ridley Park and Norwood, in Delaware County, the car she was riding in began to smell strange.
"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. And, as people were walking by, they said the train’s on fire, but the conductors aren’t saying anything. And, eventually they opened the doors and we got off," she explained.
She went on to say passengers were on the train about 15 minutes when they smelled smoke, but before they evacuated. She thought it took about 15 minutes to get off the train.
Video from the scene showed smoke swirling about one of the train cars.
What's next:
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported Friday morning that a team of investigators will look into the train fire.
The NTSB was in Philadelphia recently to shift through the wreckage of a medical plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia that killed seven and injured dozens.