A UCF shuttle bus caught fire near UCF campus, and a car caught fire in the Nike parking lot about an hour apart from one another Monday afternoon.
No students or the shuttle bus driver were injured in both incidents.
Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the flame engulfed bus around 1:30 p.m. The bus was on Route 10, which connects residents of The Lofts and Orion on Orpington to UCF campus.
Four students and a driver were aboard the shuttle and got off when they realized something on the bus did not smell right, UCF spokesman Mark Schlueb said.
Keith Morlock was nearby when he noticed the bus start to catch on fire.
“It looked like the front left tire was on fire and it grew from there. The driver got all the students out and they abandoned ship before it got worse. Not much left,” Morlock said.
The shuttle bus fire forced firefighters to shut down Challenger Parkway and parts of Alafaya Trail. The roads are back open and a new shuttle bus is currently serving Route 10.
A green four-door sedan caught fire in the parking lot of Nike student housing about an hour later.
The owner of the car told KnightNews.com that his car began to smoke up when he started it. He said the car started to burst into flames and he called 911.
He said he is not a student, and his car was working fine up until today. He wasn’t injured.
Other vehicles in the lot moved away from the car and none were severely damaged, however one car did have minimal damage.
The cause of both fires is still under investigation, but Orange County Fire Rescue said both appear to originate from the mechanical problems under the hood of the vehicles.
Eric Alas Gutierrez, Christal Hayes and Jake Rakoci contributed to this report.
