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T inspector surprised to learn bus 100 feet away from him seemed about to burst into flames
By adamg on Tue, 10/12/2010 - 11:03pm
Our Longwood Medical Area correspondent files the following dispatch to go with his photo:
Tonight at 6 p.m. a 39 T bus in front of 677 Huntington Ave (Harvard School of Public Health) started filling the street with smoke from its engine. 100 feet away sits an MBTA safety inspector in his shack, which has four windows so he (in theory) can see outside. I witness the bus, which looks like it will burst in flames any second - the smoke fills the street and envelops the MBTA shack. I see the inspector looking down in the shack as if he is reading or snoozing. First I pull a fire box across from the inspector's shack to alert the Fire Dept. Mind you there is a phone and radio in the supervisor's shack. I pound on the door and startle the inspector and tell him, "One of your buses is on fire 100 feet down the street." "Really?" he says. I say, ":ook, didn't you notice the smoke filling the street? He says, "Huh, what? Oh my God!"
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Comments
Glad to see the street fire boxes getting some use
Even in the era of cell phones it's still nice to have a backup system that can boast uptime of over a century and faster response times than a 911 call.
fire
Looks more like steam like a blown hose. Fire is usually dark heavy smoke. I could be wrong.
Yes it looked like steam but
Yes it looked like steam but it had a burning type smell to it and wasn't fun to breath when it filled the entire street.
Probably coolant
The burning smell was probably the coolant as it vaporized with the water. Old coolant starts to get a gamey/fishy smell from the hoses. It could also be something that was getting steamed off of the engine (like old diesel crud) by the steam treatment.
Blown headgasket
The bus I was on was overheating and smelled like blown head gasket. Some type of coolant leak could do that, too.
Been there, done that. '78 Rabbit Diesel: Long may you run!
Sept 11, 2001. The cell phone
Sept 11, 2001.
The cell phone carriers were overloaded with calls, and a lot of calls did not go through. Those fire boxes, were the only way to call for help!!! Most cities and towns want to get rid of them. It's still nice to know, that if I need help, all I have to do is pull that lever, and help is on the way!
This would be where there is
This would be where there is an inspector approx. 20 hours a day 365 days. Where they destroy the trees and the bus shelter plexiglass and the antiqued light fixtures high overhead. while the inspector sits in the SUV motor running five a.m. til one a.m.
Safety Inspector
and to think this guy makes 60k+ a year to not notice things......but I did feel bad when I startled him by pounding on the door.....he had looked so comfortable
Makes me wonder
What the hell was up with buses smoking like hell yesterday? I was on an express bus headed downtown yesterday morning when it started pouring out smoke and making the most deity-free noise from the rear. The operator nursed it to the end of the carpool lane where she could pull aside and not block traffic. We all got out and stood at the front as it started smoking more and more, and got on another bus that showed up just a minute or two later.
I don't know if it was on fire, but it did look something like that. Makes me wonder if it was related - like, somebody used the wrong fluids in the wrong places on more than one bus, read their torque wrench wrong, etc.
(on a side note, I was in one of the buildings in the picture above on 9/11/01 and we had no land-line or cel service or internet because everything crashed at once)
Stories like this are why I
Stories like this are why I love Universal Hub!
Without it, we'd have no idea about much of what's happening.
With it, we still don't know WHY things are happening, often, but that's life.
I'm going to burn some mail in my hallway now....