Three people are dead and at least 16 others were injured in a fiery collision involving eight vehicles, including two City of Calgary busses.
The mass casualty event that left 19 people dead or hurt happened just after 1 p.m. in the city’s northeast.
Staff Sgt. Andy Woodward with the Calgary Police Service said it was a chain reaction of crashes along the 800 block of Saddletowne Circle N.E.
“One of the buses was travelling along Saddletowne Circle, collided with a white vehicle, which then collided with a black vehicle and then it ended up colliding with the cube van,” Woodward said.
“(It) then carried on down and hit the bus that caught fire that was static at the bus stop. That bus then went across the road into two other vehicles.”
Passenger vehicles damaged on Saddletowne Circle at 80 Ave NE, where a Calgary Transit bus caught fire on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026.
Woodward said in his 36 years in policing, it was perhaps the biggest collision scene he’d ever responded to.
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Images and video posted online showed flames and thick, black smoke shooting from the roof of one bus and the front of a second bus.
One of the buses was fueled by liquid natural gas. A large, fierce fire began shooting from the top of the bus after it came to a stop.
Three people on the bus that caught fire were killed, police said.
Of the 19 injured, 10 were taken to hospital, including one person with “life-altering” injuries and one with serious injuries. Officials said one of the bus drivers was amongst those seriously hurt.
“On top of those, there was five non-life-threatening ‘walking wounded,’ as we would call them. They were cleared at the scene and taken to hospital for further assessment,” said Emergency Health Services Alberta public information officer Adam Loria.
A Calgary Police Service officer was also hurt responding to the emergency.
“Early indications is that she ran out towards the bus when she saw the fire,” Woodward said. “As she approached the bus, we believe that the fire spread and then the explosion took place.”
Police said the officer suffered minor injuries from the blast and was taken to hospital.
Around 1:30 p.m., police said the intersection of Saddletowne Circle and 80 Ave NE in northeast Calgary was closed.
As of Thursday afternoon, the cause of the crash was not yet known.
“Our collision reconstruction have obviously arrived at the scene and they will try and piece together exactly what’s occurred,” Woodward said.
The crash happened near a fire and police station, as well as a strip mall equipped with security cameras.
“Video footage is being collected as we speak — a lot of the shops here have also got video footage, so we’ll be looking into that as well as part of our investigation.”
When speaking to reporters at city hall earlier on Thursday afternoon, Mayor Jeromy Farkas extended his sympathy to the victims.
The mayor deferred all other questions to police and fire officials.
All access to Saddletowne Circle will be closed for a significant amount of time and police asked drivers to please avoid the area.
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cool, the experts and the racists are in the comments. You people are disgusting. Get a life.
Sorry to the families of those that lost their lives and to those who were injured.
The driver that caused this senseless collision need to be fully charged to the extent of the law. One driver caused this tragedy and they need to be charged. Were they on there cell phone as about 30 percent at least are on their phones all the time. Were they speeding?
They just need to be charged and pay for their mistakes. Way too many bad drivers in Calgary!
Oh my, this is awful. God bless everyone and their families.
This is why I need you to vote for less immigration on Oct 19h.
Probably an immigrant driving the bus
We already knew they’re too dumb to fly, but it turns out white inbreds cant even drive a bus without ramming into something
Most likely Elbows Up Carney Liberals. .
First off I should have said condolences to the families and I apologize for not say on that in first comments.
As society moves towards cleaner energy there will be more vehicles running on Liquified Natural gases as it lowers emissions. Is it a safe fuel? Is it handled safe in vehicles like a bus? There are many vehicles using this technology and many of the are Trucks and buses.
Is it better then EV’s most likely as the range for EV’s drops substantially in colder weather. Plus there has not been enough infrastructure built to sustain EV’s.
Obviously there will be an investigation and it should be looked at if the Liquified Natural Gas is a safe alternative fuel for public vehicles like buses.
The simple cause of this tragic collision was that one or more drivers were not paying attention to their safe operation of a vehicle.
Public buses SHOULD NOT be fueled bu liquid natural gas! OMG!
The bus was running on Liquid Natural Gas and not electric.
CTV news reports that the bud was running on Liquid natural gas and not electric.
Wait for it…
Stay on target…
Yep, probably an EV.
More will continue to believe it regardless of whether it is true.
Reminder, cars dont burst into flames when they collide…thats Hollywood nonsense…
Electric Bus?
Horrible news.
My thoughts are with their families.
It’ll be interesting to see what caused two buses to collide!?
It is so sad to learn 3 travellers lost their life and many more injured. From the look of scene it seems it is local street for access to shopping malls etc. It seems the cause of fire in elevtrical fault in the vehicle and not the impact of collision. It seems bus maintainance was an issue which is quite common in trucks now a days. Yearly Inspection quality has gone down in trucking and it might be similar case. I feel sorry for all the victims.