T worker still in hospital after bus fire
Cause of blaze under review
Authorities are still working to determine the cause of a bus fire at the MBTA’s Arborway bus yard in Jamaica Plain that sent two employees to the hospital Thursday afternoon, an agency spokesperson said Friday morning.
Spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said via e-mail that the cause of the blaze is still under investigation, and that one of the two employees taken to the hospital remained there Friday morning. Pesaturo had said Thursday that the employees were taken to the hospital for evaluation for potential smoke inhalation.
The fire started around 3:10 p.m. Thursday. An out-of-service bus had just returned to the yard when flames were seen coming from its rear compartment, according to a statement from Pesaturo.
A photo posted on Twitter showed a bus with its upper rear section engulfed in orange flames while thick, black smoke billowed around the vehicle.
Darragh Murphy, who took the photo, said she was driving home to Dorchester from an appointment in Jamaica Plain “when out of the corner of my eye, I saw orange flames.”
“That bus was driving down Washington Street on fire and then went into the yard,” Murphy, 53, said Thursday in an interview.
Pesaturo said Friday morning that the damaged bus is “out of service indefinitely,” and that the T’s “entire bus fleet is inspected regularly.”
A private company will provide shuttle buses to replace trains on the Orange Line during a monthlong closure of the entire line, which is scheduled to begin the evening of Aug. 19 and
last until the morning of Sept. 19 to allow for critical repairs.
The T has been under scrutiny by the Federal Transit Administration since April following a string of safety incidents, including the April 10 dragging death of a Red Line passenger at Broadway station. Last week, the federal agency ordered “an immediate safety standdown” to address ongoing issues with runaway trains.