Fire Breaks Out on MTA Bus; 2 Suffer Smoke Inhalation
LOS ANGELES — A natural gas-powered Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus carrying passengers from downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley caught fire Friday on the Hollywood Freeway.
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said two of the 10 passengers on the bus were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of minor smoke inhalation.
MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said the bus driver was about to leave the freeway at Lankershim Boulevard “when he became aware there was a fire in the rear engine compartment.”
The bus came to a stop on Lankershim Boulevard under the freeway and the passengers got off.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The 1995 model bus was one of the first group of MTA buses to run on compressed natural gas. Damage was estimated at between $10,000 and $15,000.
MTA official Richard Hunt said there have been about 30 bus fires in the last five years, with six or seven of themon natural gas buses.
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