Redondo Beach About Town
An LA Metro 232 bus caught fire at Pacific Coast Highway and Avenue H on Tuesday. Image courtesy Mike Kassel.
Bus fire on PCH; Hahn demands changes
Supervisor Janice Hahn called LA Metro to quickly phase out its diesel-engine buses after a bus on route 232 caught fire at Pacific Coast Highway and Avenue H on Tuesday morning. No one was injured in the blaze.
Redondo Beach Firefighters responded to the vehicle fire at about 6:50 a.m., and knocked the fire down within minutes, according to Capt. Mark Winter. Winter said there was no report on the cause, but that it was indicated to be mechanical in nature.
Hahn released a statement “demanding” that Metro immediately pull diesel buses from service.
“It has been brought to my attention that yet another Metro bus has caught fire– this time in Redondo Beach. This bus is part of an aging fleet of diesel buses, several of which have caught fire in recent years,” Hahn said in a statement. “Late last year, I ordered that Metro expedite replacement of each of these old diesel buses, however, it is clear that this process is not moving quickly enough. These buses are dangerous and must be taken off our roads immediately.”
According to Metro, there were 32 buses in service.
Metro spokesman Jose Ubaldo said, in a statement, that the agency is in the process of replacing the old diesel buses being operated by contracted service MV Transportation.
“We have procured new CNG buses to replace the diesel buses. So far, one new CNG bus has been put into service and another 10 new CNG buses have been delivered and are currently undergoing testing and inspections before placing into service,” Ubaldo said.
In the meantime, Metro said it will use existing CNG buses within its current fleet to immediately replace MV Transportation’s 32 diesel buses, expected to be accomplished by the end of Tuesday.
“Once the delivery of additional new CNG buses arrives, we will then change out the old CNG buses with the new ones,” Ubaldo said.