Ashlee Woods was one in all 300 passengers on a SEPTA practice touring between Philadelphia and Wilmington on Thursday night when it burst into flames. She says the journey was troubled from the beginning, arriving at Jefferson Station half-hour late.
Nevertheless it received a lot worse in Delaware County, the place the six-car practice caught fireplace. Nobody was injured within the blaze, which occurred round 6 p.m. close to the Crum Lynne Station in Ridley Park.
A SEPTA spokesperson mentioned it’s not clear how the fireplace began, however that it began beneath the practice and shortly engulfed the passenger vehicles, in accordance with 6ABC.
Woods, an intern at WHYY, mentioned passengers ready for the 4:26 p.m. to Wilmington had been instructed there was a mechanical difficulty with the practice.
As soon as the practice arrived, she mentioned, she observed it was not operating easily.
“So we received on the practice and it was shifting reasonably gradual,” she mentioned. “It’s not a quick practice, however it was shifting slower than regular.” And because it proceeded out of the town, it stopped at stations longer than regular.
“Someplace round, I feel Norwood or Ridley Park, I began smelling smoke,” she mentioned.
She mentioned the scent did relent for a bit, then the practice stopped between the Ridley Park and Crum Lynne SEPTA stations. Woods mentioned she didn’t understand what was happening at first.
“We simply thought we had been simply stopped to choose up folks, however then a few of us realized that we weren’t on the station,” she mentioned. “We had been nonetheless a number of ft away from the station, and the [SEPTA employee] comes again and we had been like, ‘Properly, what’s happening?’ ”
Quickly after, Woods noticed smoke exterior of the automotive.
“We’re wanting exterior the window and smoke begins billowing and it’s actually thick clouds. We had been like, ‘Ought to we evacuate?’ ” she mentioned. A SEPTA worker instructed passengers to go as far again on the practice as they might.
Woods, who had been within the second automotive, mentioned it seemed to be the primary automotive that caught fireplace. Whereas passengers had been attempting to maneuver again, they had been instructed to evacuate.
The scenario didn’t get simpler from there.
“It was just about a multitude from there as a result of we had been attempting to determine buses,” she mentioned. “We had been attempting to determine if we had been going to get buses down there [to Wilmington], and the buses did lastly arrive.”
She mentioned these passengers who ended up taking the buses had been “packed” onto the 2 buses. Many individuals opted to take Ubers the remainder of the way in which dwelling, however the practice was not close to different SEPTA stations. This sophisticated bus journey as nicely.
“Initially, we had been instructed that each buses could be going to simply Wilmington and stopping at Wilmington, making all of the stops and ending the route at Wilmington,” she mentioned. “And there have been lots of people, notably on the bus that I used to be on, that had been going to Churchman’s Crossing station in Newark.”
She mentioned there was some confusion for riders attempting to get to different suburbs of Newark because the bus routes didn’t match up for sure areas.
Woods mentioned one bus finally went to Newark, however she had gotten off earlier when household picked her up.
Regardless, it was a protracted commute dwelling.
“I received dwelling at 9 o’clock at evening after clocking out at 4,” she mentioned.
And she or he’s curious why the practice wasn’t changed when it was identified it had a problem.
“Earlier than the practice even left the station, we knew that the practice had a mechanical difficulty and that we had been underneath the impression that it had been mounted, or mounted nicely sufficient to the place they might safely run the route,” she mentioned.
In response to 6ABC, a SEPTA spokesperson mentioned the group is “investigating and reviewing the steps taken” for the fireplace, in addition to the reason for the fireplace.
SEPTA didn’t reply to Billy Penn’s request for an replace or remark on the time of the publication of this story.