EXCLUSIVE | Confusion reigns as California transport firm retracts statement about last week's hydrogen bus fire
Golden Empire Transit had claimed that ‘explosions were heard and seen from the [H2] tanks’, but now says this had been ‘merely speculation’
In the early hours of 18 July, a hydrogen fuel-cell bus operated by Golden Empire Transit (GET) in Bakersfield, California, caught fire as it was being refuelled, and then burned until at that was left was a charred shell.
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Hours later, GET issued a press release stating that: “Explosions were heard and seen from the tanks on the bus that had just been filled.”
“We (Golden Empire Transit) retract our earlier public statement regarding “hydrogen tanks exploding” as this is merely speculation,” GET explained. “Explosion-like sounds were heard, but until the investigation is complete the source of the explosion-like sounds cannot be confirmed.”
GET CEO Karen King had stated on the original press release: “It is too early to speculate what happened and the Bakersfield Fire Department [BFD] is conducting an investigation.”
Confusion over investigation
But while GET said in its 18 July statement, GET said that the BFD was investigating the incident, the BFD itself told local press it would not conduct an inquiry, as there was no evidence of malicious activity.
And when BFD asked for a copy of a video that captured the fire, in order to help train its personnel, GET refused, arguing that it could not be released until an investigation had been completed.
A GET spokeswoman tells Hydrogen Insight that it “has retained legal counsel that will coordinate the investigation”, adding: “I do not have any further information at this time. ”
When asked why a press release had been issued stating that fuel-tank explosions had been “heard and seen” if that had not been true, she stated: “The earlier statements were released by the District the morning after the fire. Explosion- like sounds were seen and heard and it was speculated that it was the tanks. We will not have any concrete answers until the investigation is complete.
The spokeswoman added that GET would not hand over the video of the fire to the BFD “since Bakersfield Fire was not conducting an investigation there was no need to turn it over”.
“It will likely be months until investigations are complete, and we cannot speculate on the cause of the incident while the investigation is underway,” she said. “Thus far, New Flyer has not heard or found any information that causes us to believe that other fuel cell-electric vehicles manufactured by the company pose a safety risk.
“This is the first event of this kind on a New Flyer hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicle, which has not had any recalls and has a different battery compartment and configuration than our battery-electric vehicles. New Flyer has been delivering hydrogen fuel cell-electric buses since 1994, and there are approximately 135 New Flyer hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles on the road.”
New Flyer buses are engineered, manufactured, innovated, and rigorously tested to be among the safest vehicles in North America, and the most reliable form of public transit in our communities.