T inspector surprised to learn bus 100 feet away from him seemed about to burst into flames

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!"