London bus passengers have managed to escape a large fire that engulfed the rear of a vehicle in Marylebone.
The fire, which ripped through a double-decker bus on Tuesday evening, is believed to have been accidental amid an ongoing investigation into a string of deliberate bus fires this year.
The blaze broke out on a bus on Portman Square, near Baker Street, just before 4.30pm, prompting a flurry of 18 calls to London Fire Brigade (LFB).
All passengers had fled the bus before firefighters arrived, LFB said, and there were no reports of injuries.
One man was treated at the scene by the London Ambulance Service crews for smoke inhalation.
The rear of a bus was damaged by a fire in #Marylebone. Our 999 Control Officers took 18 calls to the blaze. One man was treated for smoke inhalation https://t.co/ql6NmSDqEv © @bushpigcabs pic.twitter.com/m7fT1s9ByE
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) January 11, 2023
“The fire is believed to have been accidental, but the exact cause has been recorded as undetermined due to the level of damage within the engine bay,” LFB said in a statement.
Video footage of the fire shared on social media shows large flickering flames engulfing the outside rear of a stationary bus as plumes of black smoke filled the air.
Other vehicles travelled past the fire but the scene appeared otherwise deserted.
It comes as a Metropolitan Police investigation is underway into four fires on London buses, believed to be deliberately started, between January 2 and 6.
It was only by “sheer luck” that passengers were not injured, the Met said.
“These are extremely reckless actions which are putting the lives of innocent people at risk,” Detective Sergeant Cassandra Osborne from the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command said on Tuesday.
The first blaze was lit on January 2 on a route 215 bus in Walthamstow. A day later a second was lit on a route 97 bus, also in Walthamstow. These fires are being treated as linked.
A third fire was lit on a bus in Woodford, on January 4 and a fourth fire sparked shortly after midnight on January 6 in Rainham. These fires are not linked to each other, or the Walthamstow incidents, the Met said.
