How did a Calgary bus burst into flames, killing 3 people? | Hanomansing Live

Three people are dead and 16 others were injured when there was a chain reaction crash involving two city buses in Calgary late yesterday. And tonight, we're seeing dramatic new video of the moments that followed, including a bystander rushing toward that burning bus to help someone escape. A warning. Some of these images are disturbing. Oh, get away. Oh, get away. Get away. Police now say that the crash began when one city bus struck a truck, setting off a series of collisions. That bus eventually slammed into a second transit bus, igniting its natural gas tanks. Three passengers aboard the second bus were killed. The driver of the first bus suffered life-altering injuries, and as the fire spread, people nearby rushed to help. And with that, very quick, fire came out. and then I stopped my car and I jumped to help, police shout on me and said stop stop don't go fire there and I said no I saw there is one another child and I have to save that you know like a huge sound and I shock my body was shocked we need to help each other when I can live if we saw like this problem this should we help each other. Okay, so you saw that new footage, how dramatic those explosions were. Why was this such an explosive fire? To answer that, I want to bring in Kevin Wedek. He's a fire investigator at Ken West Fire Investigations, joining me now from Edmonton. Kevin, great to be able to talk to you a day after this tragedy unfolded. And I said it was late in the day. It was actually sort of middle of the day, Calgary. What stood out to you the most about it? Just how rapid the event was. Again, not having attended the scene, I did view several videos and certainly still photographs. And it looked like it was a very rapid fire that clearly, you know, from the photos and that started. And then, of course, with the fuel tanks being stored on the top of the bus, it spread very rapidly. Yeah. So let's talk about those fuel tanks if we can. This is a bus that's fueled by natural gas. So how does that fuel behave compared to a diesel-powered bus? Again, you're looking at a compressed gas versus diesel. There's different thoughts on it. Like, you know, from the research that I've conducted, again, these buses are fairly new, the technology. But there was a study done, I think, in 2005 involving school buses. and the indication back then was they thought it's about 2.5 times more likely that if there is an event it's going to be more serious but again with these newer buses there's really no data at this at this juncture you know looking at the severity of the impact from behind the engine is at the back but you have fuel lines that run from the tanks to the engine so a severe impact at the back would certainly potentially compromise the lines and certainly resulting in this event. Right. I mean, we've seen the pictures that were the result. Do you have any sense as to how many buses are powered by natural gas and where in Canada? And I got to ask, I mean, you mentioned school buses. Yeah, I think I think the city of Calgary, there's quite a substantial number. You know, I'm going to say probably at least 70. There should be data on that. But a lot of municipalities are using them. There have not been any incidents. Again, the reason for the tanks being up high is a safety thing, because with the buses being low to the ground and for passenger comfort, getting on and off the buses, like you say, to put the fuel tanks up top, again, safer for a side impact. um and i'm i'm certain like they say with this uh uh tragedy there's gonna be a lot of uh uh you know looking into why and how and how it can be prevented and just to follow up on the the the idea of school buses you mentioned that was a test do you know if school buses are are being powered in any in any way anywhere in canada you'll see school buses that run on diesel There's school buses that run on propane. And then again, you do also have compressed, compressed gas. So you're looking at all of the different types of fuel versus, you know, LNG being liquefied and then compressed. So, yeah, you know, you can these are on the roads throughout, you know, and other vehicles, too. A lot of commercial vehicles run the same system. So it maybe took a special kind of collision for the result to be what it was. And that will come out in the investigation. But certainly there will be a lot of people watching and listening to you and seeing that footage who are going to be concerned about this kind of vehicle. What's your message to them about the danger, if there is any, extra danger of compressed natural gas? Well, again, with the design of this, I'd be speculating. I think it's the sequence of events that led up to it. You know, you've got a multiple vehicle collision. that's going to be looked at first obviously looking at what caused, you know, the impact speed and where the failure was I mean there's going to be a number of steps, it's investigative steps they follow the scientific method, they're going to look at the maintenance of the bus any recent work that was done to the bus, you know, just the whole history and determine where the failure was, or was it something with the design, you know with this type of impact that you know this could just be the one off and, uh, they're going to, you know, like to say, we'll learn from this, but it's going to take, uh, it's going to take an in-depth investigation. It's going to involve several experts from the fire department. You're going to have, um, an LNG or you're going to have, sorry, a compressed gas expert. They're going to be looking at, uh, the lines. And, and, um, I I'm certain with the, a number of residents that were in that area, there's apartments, they're going to be looking at, uh, CCTV camera footage. Uh, People have their cameras that will be taking videos. You're going to have witness interviews of the people on the bus. So they're going to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and try to determine why and certainly how to prevent it. If there's a design issue, that could come out, but it's going to take time. Kevin Wedek, a fire investigator at CanWest Fires. Thank you for that. You're welcome.