ELLSWORTH, Maine —- A fire on an Island Explorer bus Wednesday morning destroyed the vehicle but did not result in any injuries, according to a local fire official.

The fire was reported around 7:30 a.m. after a passenger on the bus smelled smoke, Ellsworth Deputy Fire Chief Richard Tupper said. The bus, which the driver suspected had a flat tire, was parked behind Maine Coast Mall while five passengers waited for a new bus to arrive to take them to Mount Desert Island, Tupper said.

The driver had gone to an Island Explorer storage site in Ellsworth to get another bus when the passenger got off the parked bus to investigate where the smoke smell might be coming from, according to Tupper. He saw a small fire in the driver’s side wheel well, and then alerted other passengers about the fire before calling the fire department.

Island Explorer buses are powered with propane, and three of the propane tanks on the burning bus were venting when firefighters arrived, Tupper said. The tanks are designed to vent in the event of a fire, he said, and were spraying jets of burning propane from the bottom of the bus toward the pavement.

There were explosions from the fire, but not because tanks were rupturing, as firefighters had at first feared, the assistant chief said. The loud booms coming from the bus were from tires that were exploding from the heat, he said.

Officials are still trying to determine how the fire started.

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