"It sounded like someone was trying to knock down Annenberg," added Elli Thomson '03.

An officer with the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), which responded to the accident before the fire department, said he had difficulty keeping interested students from approaching the scene.

"We got to witness the lack of intelligence of the Harvard students there," the fire department's Reardon said. "The officers kept asking students to step back, but they continued returning to the wall to look."

Some students questioned why firefighters didn't respond as soon as the fire broke out, considering that a Cambridge Fire Department station is located across the street from Memorial Hall.

"We were having a busy morning," Reardon explained. "All the trucks were out on various calls so we responded as soon as we could."

Cambridge Street was closed off to all westbound traffic for more than an hour. Eastbound traffic was diverted south onto Quincy Street.

The charred skeleton of the bus, which was completely gutted by the fire, was towed away a little over an hour after the fire started.

Officials from Boston College's transportation services office were unavailable for comment.