Electric School Bus Catches Fire in Montreal, Children Escape Safely

An electric school bus transporting five children caught fire in Montreal on Tuesday morning; fortunately everyone aboard escaped without injury. These EV buses are also deployed in some U.S. school districts.

Reports indicate that an electric school bus carrying five elementary students suddenly erupted in flames this week. The blaze escalated quickly, triggering multiple 911 calls at about 8:00 a.m.

According to the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), the province’s largest school service center, the alert driver smelled something off and immediately pulled the vehicle over. Acting quickly, the driver exited with the five children before the fire consumed the bus. Because of the driver’s fast thinking and rapid action, all passengers got out unharmed.

Montreal’s fire department arrived on scene, with four firefighters extinguishing the fire. A fire department spokesperson said the driver had just switched off the heating when smoke began billowing from the vents, prompting the evacuation.

The school bus, built by LION (formerly Lion Electric), has come under scrutiny amid the company’s recent financial woes. LION entered creditor protection in December after failing to obtain new funding from the Quebec government. In May, a consortium of investors revived the company, concentrating solely on electric school buses, with roughly 1,000 operating across Quebec at that time.

Maintenance for these buses was meant to be handled by LION personnel and to resume gradually after the relaunch. However, it is unclear whether maintenance operations had fully restarted before Tuesday’s fire. LION spokesperson Loïc Philibert said the company is carrying out an analysis to determine the circumstances of the incident.

First Student, the parent company of Transco, which owns the LION-made bus, has also opened an inquiry into the cause of the blaze. The company commended the driver for their quick and proper response that kept everyone safe. They also thanked the local fire department for their swift and professional response.

It was previously reported that some U.S. school districts are abandoning their Lion Electric EV buses in favor of conventional diesel models because they are hard to maintain:

The shift back to diesel school buses comes as Quebec-based Lion Electric, which the administration awarded $159 million “to manufacture 435 school buses between 2022 and 2024,” has gone into bankruptcy. Consequently, the company has “warned school districts that its dire financial straits prevent it from servicing” the electric buses.

Several superintendents told the outlet that although they would attempt to keep their “electric fleet” running “for as long as possible,” they would ultimately have to “return to diesel” because diesel buses are more cost-effective.

“We are going to keep our electric fleet on the roads for as long as possible,” one superintendent said. The district “received $2.8 million in federal funding to procure seven Lion buses in 2022.”