NEW YORK — A Boston-bound BoltBus en route to Boston from New York City was engulfed in flames on the side of I-90 Monday afternoon, Massachusetts state police said.
Emergency workers responded to several frantic 911 calls from passengers inside the bus around 4:45 p.m., state police said. The callers said there were flames and smoke coming out of the back of the bus while it was still zooming eastbound down the highway.
When police and fire officials caught up with the bus in Newton, the 46 passengers and driver had already safely evacuated the vehicle with no reported injuries.
Soon after passengers evacuated, the bus was engulfed in flames and its windows blew out, as seen in a video from NBC New York.
State police said that neither the gas tank nor engine had ignited.
A video posted by an eastbound driver shows the blazing bus:
Bolt Bus is on FIRE...literally. Mass Pike Eastbound. 2 lanes closed. Hope everyone's okay @BoltBus @7News pic.twitter.com/th2ZZLwKZ8
— Ann Lambert (@AnnLambert18) May 11, 2015The stranded passengers were picked up by a Peter Pan bus and another BoltBus that came to their rescue, state police said.
A spokeswoman for BoltBus said the bus driver pulled the vehicle over once he noticed smoke and called the authorities. All passengers were able to get their belongings and no one was hurt, she said.
"We are fully cooperating with local authorities and the local fire department on the investigation and conducting an investigation of our own," she said.
