With lights flashing and sirens blazing, four fire trucks and a Syracuse police car descended at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on the bus stop on College Place, blocking traffic for about 15 minutes as fire officials checked out the engine of a bus that had been filling with smoke.

The blue bus, operated by Centro, was headed to Liverpool, said Rich Yule, a graduate student in chemistry.

‘I just got in, and I was the only one getting on because not too many people take it, and it was smoky and it smelled like exhaust,’ Yule said.

After smelling the smoke, Yule told the bus driver, he said, and the two cleared the bus, with the driver calling the police. Five minutes later, the five separate units showed up.

It turned out there was just a mechanical problem with the bus and that it would probably have to be towed, according to Dave Munski, lieutenant with the Syracuse Fire Department. The response was normal for a report of smoke on a bus, Munski said, as officials want to do everything to ensure people are safe.