Firefighters responded to the 7600 block of Folk Avenue in Maplewood to extinguish a burning Metro bus at around 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, according to KSDK news.
According to Maplewood police, the bus was preparing to stop on Folk Avenue just west of Big Bend when a boom noise came from the back.
The driver tried to extinguish the fire before firefighters arrived. The driver and three passengers escaped without injuries, according to KSDK.
This was amazing, in a scary way. I live two streets away from where this happened. I’m also in the 7600 block. I was in the snooze-cycle of my morning ritual, and heard this big boom! Sounded like either an explosion, or like a truck falling off of an overpass onto the street below. Bellowing, heavy metal kind of sound. I got up (not b/c of this), went downstairs and even though I didn’t know what it was, I assumed if it was something pretty bad I’d be hearing sirens. No sirens!!
Then a second BOOM! Was like the first but a bit louder. My husband had just got up by this time and asked if I heard that. Yes! Neither of us could determine what it was, but again, no sirens. We had no idea until about an hour later when we were watching the morning news and it reported (initially) that a bus caught fire … then later they reported a small explosion.
Well, we hear two explosions. And being two streets away I can’t imagine how loud it must have been for the folks on Folk.
Anyway, I very thankful no one was injured!! And also thankful for the driver remaining calm and trying to put out the fire himself. That was very brave. Kudos to him!