Bus ablaze
Navajo transit vehicle catches fire in Gallup
Gallup fire offials survey the damage to a Navajo Transit System bus on Friday morning at the Greyhound Bus Station on Montoya Blvd. The bus driver thought he heard a tire blow out, and upon inspection found the bus to be on fire at the rear drivers side wheel wells. Fiver passengers were quickly evacuated and no one was hurt. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — Five people were on their way from Gallup to Window Rock to go to work this morning when they heard an explosion in the undercarriage of their bus.

The Navajo Transit System “Discover Navajoland” bus was making its regular morning run morning when “something blew up” driver Raymond Klaw said. He pulled over into the bus station on Maloney Avenue around 6:35 a.m. and found flames shooting out from the rear wheels. He said he grabbed the vehicle’s fire extinguisher and started to put out the fire, but the fire extinguisher ran out of flame retardant.

One of the passengers had a cell phone and called 911. The Gallup Fire Department came over and put out the fire.

It didn’t look like a gasoline explosion, Klaw said, but he didn’t know what it was. Although the tires looked like they had fire damage to them, Klaw thought the tires looked like they were still intact.

The five passengers found other rides and left the scene of the fire, and Klaw waited for someone from the Navajo Transit System to arrange for a tow truck to the company office in Window Rock.