© CBS New YorkDamage: The manhole cover is seen coming through the floor of the bus
A manhole cover tore through the floor of an MTA bus, injuring a rider Tuesday in the Bronx.
The incident took place on a BX 11 bus at around noon at 170th Street and Inwood Avenue in the Mount Eden section.
The passenger suffered minor injuries caused by fragments of the flooring.
A representative of the Transport Workers Union told
CBS2 the driver heard a loud bang and then heard a passenger screaming.
"
It sounded like an explosion. He heard the lady scream and that's what made him apply the brake and go back there and see what the situation was," Frank Austin, the TWU's safety director for bus drivers, told
1010 WINS.
As
CBS2's Steve Langford reported, the sound could be heard up and down the street.
"Boom, and all I seen the bus stopped, and I see fire shooting up and people started running down the street," Michael Parfer said.
Parker thought it was a bomb, until he saw the manhole cover fly.
"Spinned up like a spinning top, shot up through the bus. Straight up through the bus," he said.
One witness said he noticed that the manhole cover was loose in recent days.
"The thing is like that," he said.
Comment: As a second firefighter dies battling the blazes engulfing California, in British Columbia more fires are expected as increased lightning activity is forecast. Aside from the arid, drought conditions could some of these worldwide wildfires be fueled from increased outgassing of methane and other gases? See also:
Study: Wildfire seasons are more destructive and lasting longer almost everywhere on Earth