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.
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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 get out
" 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.
25 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.
According to our information, 25 buses of this type were recalled to their technical center following the incident.
Read alsoGeneral Motors recalls electric Bolts again due to fire risks
Questioned by
Le Figaro
, Alexis Louvet, co-secretary at Solidaires RATP, announces that his union "
will ask for investigations, and will ask the question of the steps that the management intends to take to ensure that these are isolated incidents
".
Without drawing any conclusions on the fire of 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 have to 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
”.
SEE ALSO
- A bus catches fire in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, and causes a thick cloud of smoke
