Passengers Forced to Evacuate from E3 on High Road
Smoke seen billowing from the engine of the bus
The driver made an announcement telling passengers to get off . Picture: Dan Harriss
May 4, 2023
Passengers on an E3 travelling along Chiswick High Road on Wednesday morning (3 May) had to be evacuated from the bus after smoke was seen billowing from the engine.
The incident occurred shortly before 10:45am as the bus was moving westbound near the Fishers Lane junction. The vehicle was immobilised causing traffic delays in the area until its removal.
The bus company says that there was not a fire on the vehicle but the smoke seen was due to a fire suppression system.
A spokesperson for RATP, the company which owns London United, said, “We are aware that a fire suppression system on the E3 bus was activated at around 11am on Wednesday 3rd May 2023. We can confirm that no fire occurred and that no passengers were injured.
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So far, our investigations have identified a fault that triggered the fire extinguisher system, automatically alerting the driver. As per our standard safety procedures, the driver made an announcement to the passengers and evacuated the bus. Safety remains our utmost priority and we have taken the bus in question out of service while we address the fault.”
We asked the company if the incident would need other vehicles in the fleet of the same model would need to be withdrawn for testing, but they did not respond to the question. Fire at a depot in London recently caused by an electric bus spontaneously catching fire did lead to a withdrawal for a period of other vehicles of this specific type. London Fire Brigade says it was not called to the incident. Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.
Video: Dan Harriss