BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A city bus was destroyed and part of a hydrogen fueling station was damaged early Tuesday morning when a fire sparked in the lot at the Golden Empire Transit office on Golden State Avenue in Bakersfield.
According to a press release from GET about the incident, the Bakersfield Fire Department responded to an alarm at around 1:15 on July 18. BFD says that when firefighters arrived, they found a hydrogen fuel-cell bus and part of a new hydrogen fueling station engulfed in flames.
At the time of the fire, GET's new hydrogen buses were in the process of refueling.
GET's press release says that while the fuel tanks on the bus, which had just been filled, exploded and took the bus with them, the primary tanks serving the fueling station itself did not ignite because of safety technology incorporated into the fueling unit.
GET estimates the cost to replace the destroyed hydrogen bus at around $1.1 million. They don't have an estimated cost for repairing the damage to the fueling station.
The Bakersfield Fire Department says they don't yet know how the fire started and the investigation is ongoing.
