Greyhound Bus Fire
updated: Sep 02, 2012, 9:40 PM

By the Urban Hikers

On Sunday afternoon at about 5:30 p.m. the northbound Greyhound Bus en route to Oakland from Los Angeles made it's regularly scheduled stop at the new Santa Barbara Greyhound Bus Station near the train station. The bus, with an estimated 18-20 passengers aboard reportedly began to experience trouble at the Summerland Hill. One passenger indicated he thought the traffic and heat of the day had caused the brakes to overheat and emit an odor, but in fact an electrical fire had started in the engine compartment of the bus.

The bus driver, believing the smell of smoke was the result of someone smoking in the lavatory pulled into the bus station in Santa Barbara and went to investigate. When he determined that the smoke was from another source, he driver immediately directed an evacuation of the bus. After clearing the bus he used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames and then called for an emergency response from the Fire Department. Engine 1 arrived to find the bus with light smoke emanating from it. The bus driver had efficiently put out the flames in the engine compartment, but the fire had already progressed into the insulation of the bus.

When firefighters arrived they manually opened the passenger compartment and wall to get to the smoldering insulation. Ultimately they had to use water to douse the problem area. They remained on scene for about an hour to be sure the fire had been adequately put out, and the passengers' personal belongings had been removed from the bus.

Passengers had nothing but positive things to say about the driver of the bus, who kept the passengers calm, got the bus cleared and prevented passengers from returning to the bus for their personal belongings. Greyhound officials told passengers to sit tight, as they were sending another bus to Santa Barbara from LA to continue the route. The replacement bus was expected to arrive about two hours after the initial delay. One passenger stated he was concerned because he had planned to arrive in Oakland later Sunday evening and then travel to Reno for a job that required him to be there by Monday morning at 6:00 am. We sort of doubt that he will make that deadline, but had the fire started earlier and the bus not made it to the Santa Barbara station, things could have been infinitely worse.

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