A few weeks after a first fire, a very recent “bluebus” caught fire this Friday in front of the François Mitterrand library. On the same day, an electric bus of a different brand caught fire in Carcassonne.
A new fire affects the RATP: this Friday, a bus on line 71 caught fire at the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand station, causing an impressive cloud of smoke in the 13th arrondissement. Thirty firefighters responded. On April 4, a bus had already caught fire on Boulevard Saint-Germain. Two close incidents which led the RATP to announce the temporary withdrawal of 149 of its buses.
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The fire broke out around 8:30 a.m. on Avenue de France. On the videos shot by local residents, we can see a thick column of smoke and impressive flames escaping from the bus. The triggering element remains undetermined for the moment. The fire was contained around 9:30 a.m.
Borough Mayor Jérôme Coumet said on Twitter that there were no casualties, adding that the “driver was able to extract himself” of the vehicle. To facilitate technical interventions, the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand metro stop, on metro line 14, was closed to the public shortly after 9 a.m.
149 electric buses returned to the center
The bus that caught fire is a very recent “bluebus», motorized by electricity. It carried large lithium batteries, just like the one that had burned at the beginning of April on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. The RATP announces that it haswithdrawn from operation the 149 electric buses of the series» et «requested a complete expertise from the manufacturer Bolloré in order to […] propose an action plan to allow a return to operation in complete safety“. The withdrawal could lead to disruptions “during the day».
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Asked by Le FigaroAlexis Louvet, co-secretary at Solidaires RATP, announces that his union “will ask for investigations, and will ask the question of the steps that management intends to take to ensure that these are isolated incidents“. Without drawing any conclusions on the fire this Friday, the elected official said “alert on the greenwashing of the RATP concerning its equipment». «There is an extremely rapid renewal for reasons of ecological image, we do not know if it will be good business in this respect. And we often deal with poor quality equipment, degrading very quickly», Regrets the representative. When contacted, the RATP declared that “an investigation is underway to determine the causes of the incident».
An electric bus catches fire in Carcassonne the same day
Concomitantly in the morning, an electric bus caught fire in Carcassonne. The vehicle caught fire at the level of an SNCF bridge, causing the interruption of rail traffic between Narbonne and Toulouse, reports AFP. “It was a bus without passengers, used for trials“, indicated the prefecture of Aude, specifying that the driver had deviated from his trajectory and “hung on a bridge in order to avoid a vehicle“. The lithium battery then caught fire. According to the local daily The Independent the bus that caught fire is believed to be Atak.
The fire, which broke out at 9 a.m., mobilized around fifty firefighters, without causing any injuries, “apart from the driver who initially tried to extinguish the flames and was inconvenienced by the fumes“, underlined the firefighters. The resumption of rail traffic is expected from 3 p.m.
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