RTD Replacing Wiring After Fires on 4 Buses

Electrical fires with similar origins have destroyed or damaged four RTD buses, forcing evacuation of passengers at least twice, briefly trapping one driver and prompting the district to begin replacing the front-end wiring on 410 buses.

RTD officials say they believe the fires were caused by the chafing of heater hoses against metal-coated wires at the front end of the buses--problems they attribute to manufacturing faults. Three of the fires occurred this year; none caused injuries.

So far, RTD officials say, they have retrofitted the front end of 60 of 410 Neoplan coaches purchased in 1984, the kind where the chafing has occurred.

The entire fleet will remain in service while the modifications are made at a cost of about $500,000. RTD officials estimate the wiring on the 350 other 1984 Neoplan buses will be replaced with non-conductive material within 90 to 120 days.

“It’s not something we take lightly, but I don’t think it’s serious enough to pull the buses off the street,” said L. R. Davis, head of maintenance for the bus system.

The bus system decided to issue a public statement about the fires Thursday in response to inquiries by The Times. Previously, the fires had not been publicized, nor were bus drivers informed of the problem.

RTD General Manager John Dyer, informing the district’s Board of Directors about the fires, said, “There really is no safety hazard.” He called the fires “a series of isolated incidents.”

Davis initially told The Times that none of the bus fires started with passengers aboard. He also said that temporary safeguards had been taken to eliminate the chafing problem on all of the buses.

Called ‘Honest Error’

Later, after being asked for documentation, Davis acknowledged that passengers had been involved and that repairs had not yet been completed on most of the buses. He attributed the earlier misinformation to “honest error.”

He said the electrical fires are slow to start, leaving adequate time for passenger evacuation.

“You do get a lot of warning,” he said.

However, a source familiar with one of the fires, which destroyed a Neoplan bus in service on Feb. 15, said the driver was forced to flee the bus before he even had time to activate a fire extinguisher.

The source, whose description of the fire is largely confirmed by an RTD accident report, said two passengers first spotted flames in a vent at the front of the bus when they got off at a stop in Sherman Oaks.

The driver evacuated the remaining 20 passengers and walked to the back of the bus to make sure no passengers remained, the source said. He returned to the front of the bus and grabbed the fire extinguisher.

Driver Fled to Rear

But before he could activate the extinguisher, flames shot across the dashboard and over his head, the source said. The front door, activated by an air hose, closed. The driver then fled to the rear door, pushed it open and called the Fire Department, the source said.

The source said the flames quickly engulfed the bus.

“The six wheels and the frame was all that was left,” the source said. “That all happened under 10 minutes.”

Davis, told of the speed of the fire, replied: “There appears to be adequate time for the people to get off. . . . We had one bus with 50 people on it and we were able to safely evacuate.”

The first front-end fire believed to have been caused by the chafing occurred in February, 1986. At the time, Davis said, it was considered an isolated event. After a second bus was destroyed by a similar fire a year later, an inspection of the entire fleet was undertaken.

Inspectors attributed that second fire to electrical wiring in the dashboard sign that illuminates the bus number. Within two days, Davis said, all the signs were removed.

Insulation Ordered

In March, a third fire at the front end of a bus occurred, prompting Davis to order insulation placed between the wires and the hoses at the left side of all the Neoplan buses in the fleet.

The following month, a fire also believed to have been caused by chafing occurred on the right side of a bus. An inspection of the right side of 40 other Neoplan buses showed no similar chafing problems, Davis said. But in May, he ordered the wiring on the hoses in both sides of the buses replaced by plastic.

“It looks like there may be a trend starting so we’re eliminating further possibility of this by taking out the metal conduit,” said Michael Leahy, assistant director of equipment maintenance.

Davis said drivers were not notified of the fires probably because a bulletin was considered unnecessary. “You don’t want to deprive people of information,” Davis said. “On the other hand, you don’t want to unduly alarm people.”

He noted that the 410 Neoplans make up 20% of the peak-hour fleet. The probability of more fires before the retrofitting is completed is “very, very low,” Davis said. He expressed confidence that the retrofitting will prevent such fires in the future.

“I want to put the Neoplan fires in the front-end into history,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you won’t have fires in other parts.”

Additional Fires

There have been two additional fires in the fleet, one involving an engine and the other a dome light, both unrelated to the wiring problem that triggered the other fires, RTD officials said.

Davis said he believes the electrical fires were caused by manufacturing defects. He said similar fires have been reported on Neoplans used by other bus systems around the country.

Joyce Surprise, a spokeswoman for Neoplan U.S.A. Corp., said no “conclusive cause” of the fires has been established and the company considers them “isolated.”

“Neoplan is aware of a few incidents where a fire occurred on a bus and, as the original manufacturer, we were naturally concerned and immediately started an investigation, which is still ongoing,” she said in a prepared statement. “The buses in issue are 3 years old, and of course a number of factors have to be considered very carefully.”

Goldy Norton, a spokesman for the United Transportation Union, which represents RTD drivers, said he “wasn’t aware of the whole situation.”

“I don’t think anybody at this point could say anything,” he said.