News & Features - No serious injuries in Philly train fire

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No serious injuries in Philly train fire

PHILADELPHIA (UPI) -- No one was seriously hurt Wednesday morning when a fire broke out on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority train, officials said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported while as many as 700 passengers were on board the SEPTA R5 Paoli train when flames erupted in the train's first car, all passengers were evacuated safely.

SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said the cause of the fire was electrical and likely originated from a heater or a traction motor.

Williams assured the public the fire on the train, which went into service in 1965, was not linked to the ongoing strike by Philadelphia's mass transit workers.

"I can tell you there is absolutely no indication it is strike related," Williams said.

Data entry clerk Alicia Boyd, a passenger on the train's first car, told the Inquirer she and her fellow passengers were moved from the car before flames became visible.

"It was smoking when we got on," Boyd, 40, said. "It smelled like burning rubber."

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 11/04/2009

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