This movie is of a on the autoroute on fire.
I’m a little surprised that the day after the bus caught fire at Lionel-Groulx, googling the fire, all that I could find on it was this photo in the Gazette.
Steve Faguy goes into some detail about some of the problems of the second-generation low-floor buses the STM began using in 1996. He also talks about problems with safety, including their tendancies for spontaneous combustion. From what I can tell, the bus that caught fire was a classic bus.
He mentions that despite this, they’re easy to evacuate. I’m glad no one was hurt. It’s sort of a funny security feature that well… yeah… the bus could catch fire. But don’t worry… you’ll be able to get out.
It also adds an interesting spin to my previous post about the Quebec governement seeking Canadian construction for new metro cars. When Faguy talks about the STM’s decision to have NovaBus replace their old buses, he says:
NovaBus wasn’t the only low-floor player, nor were they the best. But they were Quebec-based, which meant it was politically favourable to buy from them and have the buses produced locally, and tax incentives made it much more economical to buy from them.
I’m all for supporting a healthy local economy, but there are a few other things that should be taken into consideration. Like whether it’s going to blow up.
March 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm
In both cases, the buses were first-generation low-floor (LFS) buses (i.e. the first such buses produced by NovaBus). Specifically, Nos. 17-122 and 17-019.
(Incidentally, in both cases the buses caught fire while travelling along the highway on the 211 route. In the most recent case, the bus continued to its destination while still on fire so it could find a place to safely drop off its passengers)
The fires start on the outside of the bus, and not near any major exits, so evacuation isn’t a problem. (Though the fire and smoke eventually consumes the bus, it doesn’t explode like in the movies.) These vehicles are designed to protect passengers as long as possible from engine fires.