Stanford U. Track Team's Bus Catches Fire on Seattle Freeway

SEATTLE, WA - Dozens of members of the Stanford University men's track team were inconvenienced but relatively unharmed Friday afternoon when the charter bus they were riding in broke down and then caught fire on the I-5 freeway in Seattle.

According to Seattle fire Chief Harold Scoggins, the bus broke down and caught fire on the northbound freeway near the West Seattle Bridge just after 2 p.m. Firefighters were forced to temporarily close all northbound lanes so that the fire could be extinguished; traffic was funneled off the highway at Columbian Way and onto city streets.

A total of 31 people members of the Stanford track team had been on the bus, and all got off safely, according to Scoggins.

"The bus driver pulled over; he thought we had blown a tire and stepped off the bus and looked and there was flames coming out the side," track coach Chris Miltenberg told Seattle news station KING. "Within a couple of minutes, the whole thing was completely up in flames."

A King County Metro bus was called to the scene to pick the athletes and coaches up.

The incident triggered the city of Seattle to issue an alert, warning drivers that the incident could create problems for the evening commute. By 5 p.m., crews were loading the charred bus onto the back of a flatbed, and crews were working to clear fluids off the highway.

The Washington State Dept. of Transportation tweeted the above short video of the bus while it was engulfed in flames.

Images via Washington State DOT