Party Bus Burnt to a Crisp on Broad Street [UPDATED]

We got an explanation from the owner. Well, at least we tried to. He says it was not part of the Erin Express.

All photos by Brian Howard.

All photos | Brian Howard

UPDATE 3/14/2016 2:15 p.m.: We spoke to a woman who says she was riding the party bus when it went up in flames. For the full story, go here.

ORIGINAL:

Based on the number of people currently snapping photos out at the corner of Broad and Federal, it seems that South Philadelphia has a new tourist attraction: This burnt party bus.

Naturally, a lot of people are wondering if this crispy bus was used for the dreadful Erin Express, and, really, it wouldn’t surprise us one bit if a group of inebriated (well, obviously) St. Paddy’s Day party bus passengers turned out to be responsible for such a fire. An alternate theory would be that some Erin Express-haters decided to torch the bus in protest. But the bus owner says that the vehicle — whose torched carcass is currently beautifying the sidewalk outside the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia — was not, in fact, used for the Erin Express.

The bus belongs to the creatively named Double Dz Inc. We reached Philly-based owner Blake Harris on his cell phone. Harris told us that not only was the bus not used for the Erin Express, he added that the bus has never, ever had any passengers on it. It has, however, apparently had bottles and beer cans on it:

Originally, Harris said that the fire occurred around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning when his mechanic was working on the bus.

“They were working on it at 2:30 a.m. on the street?!” we asked.

“Yeah, well, I fly my mechanics in from all over the world,” he explained. “And sometimes, they have to fly out really soon. I have mechanics all over the world working on my buses. These guys are the best in the world. They still happened to be in town from the car show.”

OK then.

But later, Harris called back to say that he was mistaken.

“It didn’t catch on fire when they were working on it,” he said. “Somebody did that to the bus. I’m waiting for a copy of the police report now.” (On Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson Eric Gripp told us that he hadn’t heard anything about a burnt party bus and that he’d look into it.)

Then Harris mentioned his former career, as rapper Young Blake, and he also told us that he’s going to be coming out with a reality show. Oh, and he’s currently in California working on a worldwide franchising operation.

“I’ve emailed every member of City Council trying to make them aware of my business,” Harris said. “And I’ve never gotten a single response. But now that this happened, I’m sure everybody’s going to want a piece of the gossip.”

Nope, nothing to see here. Just your average melted bus on Broad Street situation.

Anyway, here are more photos of the burnt party bus that has allegedly never had any passengers:

erin-express-bus-fire-4

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