Dozens of buses alight as fire rips through Philadelphia bus depot

Several dozen buses were scorched after a massive fire broke out at a depot housing them in Philadelphia.

Red flames and plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing into the air over rows of buses parked at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s (SEPTA) facility on Thursday morning.

The blaze ripped through the depot around 6am, and firefighters responded to reports of several buses alight just before 6.30am, according to the Philadelphia Fire Department.

By 7.25am, it was declared a third-alarm-level inferno, posing a significant danger and requiring multiple fire trucks at the scene.

‘We had some initial challenges with access points into the yard as well as getting water into the area where we needed it so we could address the fire,’ stated assistant fire Chief Charles Walker.

About 40 buses were destroyed, including 15 electric buses that were decommissioned.

Many of the buses buses had not been used for years and were ‘getting ready to go to the scrap heap’, according to SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch.

There were no injuries or deaths reported.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Fire Marshal’s Office, but SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer said the decommissioned electric buses could have played a factor.

An electric bus similar to the ones that were just charred caught fire in 2022 in another SEPTA depot, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The site of the latest fire is in the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood, which is roughly seven miles north of the downtown. The depot was being used to store 100 buses that were decommissioned or in the process.

Inspectors with the city’s Department of Public Health have been collecting air samples.

‘We know that the air is still not entirely safe,’ stated Philadelphia Health Commissioner Palak Raval-Nelson in the afternoon.

‘That is why my recommendation as the health commissioner is for residents to stay away from the area of the fire. People living in the area should stay inside.’

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