Bus fire prompts evacuation at Kansas City airport

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A shuttle bus caught fire outside a terminal at Kansas City International Airport on Saturday, prompting an hour-long evacuation of several hundred people, authorities said.

No serious injuries were reported, but two people who had been on the parking lot shuttle and an airport traffic officer were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, according to the Kansas City Aviation Department, which owns and operates the airport.

The fire broke out at the rear of the bus, where the engine is located, around 9 a.m. CDT while the vehicle was stopped at one end of Terminal C, said Kathleen Hefner, a spokeswoman for the Aviation Department.

The cause was under investigation, but officials quickly determined there was "no nexus to terrorism and no security threat," said Rich Curasi, federal security director in western Missouri for the Transportation Security Administration.

Several hundred people were evacuated from the semicircular terminal for slightly more than an hour.

"It was a precautionary measure in case the terminal caught fire or there was an explosion and also there was a lot of smoke and it got in the terminal," said Joe McBride, another Aviation Department spokesman.

About 500 passengers who had already been inside the terminal's waiting areas had to be rescreened, Curasi said.

Three planes were delayed, but none of the delays were longer than five minutes, McBride said. Terminal C houses Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines and Frontier. International flights depart from the terminal as well.

Hefner said the airport's shuttle buses are fueled by compressed natural gas stored in tanks on the vehicles' roofs.