LOWER LAKE — A Lake Transit Authority bus carrying 10 passengers caught fire shortly before noon Tuesday. Highway 29 was closed for approximately 20 minutes just south of Diener Drive while firefighters put out the blaze, according to California Highway Patrol officer Adam Garcia.
The LTA driver evacuated the passengers before the front end of the bus caught fire, according to Christie Scheffer of Paratransit Services, which contracts with LTA for the operation and maintenance of the buses. She said the fire started in the engine compartment on the front, left side of the bus.
“Apparently, the driver was driving up the Glasgow Grade and noticed smoke coming from under the bus, pulled over and evacuated the passengers,” LTA Transit Manager Mark Wall said.
No one was injured, according to authorities. The LTA and Lake County Fire Protection District are investigating the cause of the fire.
Scheffer said one handicapped passenger on his way to a doctor appointment had to be evacuated without his wheelchair. The hydraulic lift used to board passengers in wheelchairs is electrically powered, he said, and presented too much of a risk to use. Wall said the process of manually overriding the lift would have taken too long.
“During a situation like that, because you don”t know what”s flammable and what caused the fire, you don”t want to be operating electrically powered equipment unless you absolutely have to. This particular passenger was ambulatory to some degree and was able to get off of the bus on their own,” Wall said. The driver and passengers were not identified. Scheffer said the bus was towed to the LTA yard in Lower Lake, where the company”s insurance agency will assess the damage. She said the wheelchair was not damaged and will be returned to its owner. Two California Highway Patrol units responded, along with two CAL Fire engines and a water tender, an engine and two battalion chiefs from the Lake County Fire Protection District.
“There was major damage to the front end of the bus, and there was extensive heat and smoke damage to the rest of the bus, so it”s probably a total loss,” Lake County Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Willie Sapeta said.
Scheffer said LTA drivers are trained how to safely evacuate passengers in case of fire, and said the driver on duty “did everything by the book.” A second LTA bus arrived approximately 20 minutes after the ordeal and passengers continued on the route, according to Scheffer.
“We are conducting an investigation of what occurred, and we are committed to safe transportation,” Scheffer said. Wall said since the LTA system began running in Lake County in 1996, no other buses have caught fire while under way.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
