The battery on one of Long Beach Transit’s electric buses caught fire this morning in the agency’s maintenance yard, forcing firefighters to remove the battery and submerge it in water, according to authorities.
Shortly after 5 a.m., crews responded to the lot on East Anaheim Street between Rose and Cherry avenues after a transit employee reported seeing light smoke coming from the roof of one of the buses, said Long Beach Fire Department spokesperson Brian Fisk.
When they arrived, firefighters doused a “little burst” of flames coming from the lithium-ion battery pack on a strip in the middle of a bus, Fisk said.
Firefighters cooled the battery, removed it, and placed it into a metal dumpster full of water, which is standard procedure for a battery fire, Fisk said.
Malfunctioning or damaged lithium-ion batteries can take massive amounts of water to cool down once they’ve ignited. Last year, a load of batteries shut down the Vincent Thomas Bridge for more than a day after a truck carrying them tipped over.
Fisk said the bus was not damaged aside from the battery pack, and nobody was hurt.
The electric bus was out of service at the time and was in the yard awaiting regular maintenance, said Long Beach Transit spokesperson Arantxa Chavarria.
“We do believe this is an anomaly,” Chavarria said. “We will be working with the manufacturer to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Chavarria said no other Long Beach Transit buses have experienced battery fires “in recent history.”
The mechanic who discovered the smoking battery disconnected the bus’ power, ensuring the damage did not spread, Chavarria said.