Bus catches fire, snarls traffic at Skyway

Early rush-hour traffic along the elevated Manila-bound portion of Skyway was snarled on Monday after a passenger bus caught fire but officials said no one was reported injured. Skyway vice president for operations Ed Nepomuceno said the fire that hit the Ceres bus (with plate number DXU-470) forced them to close part of the northbound portion of Skyway temporarily. “Isinara namin ang rampa papunta elevated (We had to close the ramp leading to the elevated portion at the northbound part)," Nepomuceno said in an interview on dzBB radio. He said the incident occurred at the Magallanes area in Taguig City but was far from the toll plaza. Nepomuceno said Skyway personnel rushed to the scene when they saw thick smoke and learned that the bus was on fire. They called in firefighters after realizing their fire extinguishers could not contain the fire. He said the fire was placed under control before 8:00 a.m. “Walang report (na nasaktan) pero initially walang na-report na nasaktan (There was no report of injuries)," he said. – VVP, GMANews.TV