The SEPTA train that caught fire and was evacuated at the Crum Lynne train station in Ridley Park, Delaware County on Thursday. (Credit: Jake Chmielowski)
It's been a busy week in the Philadelphia are for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Just six days after a plane crash in Northeast Philly resulted in seven deaths and 24 injuries so far, the NTSB will be back in the area to figure out what caused a SEPTA regional rail train to catch fire and be engulfed in smoke and flames with 350 passengers on board.
Fortunately, there were no injuries as all passengers were able to exit the train safely.
The train, part of SEPTA's Wilmington-Newark Regional Rail line, erupted into flames around 6PM on Thursday at the Crum Lynne station in Ridley Park, Delaware County. The train was travelling from Philadelphia to Wilmington Del.
There were six cars on the train, and passengers told reporters they could start to smell smoke as the train pulled out of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. As the smell worsened, Septa operators moved passengers from the front toward the back of the train. However, the train continued to travel on the tracks after an initial stop that moved the passengers.
The train passed nine different stops before the conductors evacuated the train at the Crum Lynne station.
SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch told reporters that the belief is the fire was burning underneath the first car of the train, although the cause was not yet known.
"The crew will be interviewed," he said. "Everything will be looked at as much as we can get from our cameras. We'll look at all of that as part of the investigation."
Service on the line was halted for approximately five hours before being restored late Wednesday.
