On September 9, 2025, a LION school bus in Montreal, Canada, caught fire while running a route. Five children were on board at the time, but the driver helped them escape, and none were injured.

In response, Quebec's Education Ministry halted the service of all 1,200 LION buses so that inspections could be made, and Transport Canada began an investigation. No LION buses ran on Friday, Sept. 12, and some schools cancelled classes as a result.

Some buses also did not run today, Monday, Sept. 15, out of extra precaution. Prince Edward Island’s Lester B. Pearson School Board officials said parents of students on affected routes with electric buses would have to make alternative arrangements, though its diesel buses continued service as usual.

Today, PEI’s government said that inspections are complete, minor repairs were made, and the vehicles are safe. Transport Canada observed the inspections, "and expressed satisfaction with the results," CBC reported. 

London, Ontario, LION buses also will return to service Tuesday after inspections continued through today.

In a statement, LION said: “The technical analysis continues in collaboration with Transport Canada to determine the cause of Tuesday’s incident. LION can confirm, however, that neither the electric battery nor the propulsion system was involved.”

Firefighters said that the blaze was linked to the vehicle’s heating system, the CBC reported. First Student’s inspections concur with this: Of more than 200 buses, they found the defrosting system was the likely problem and disabled it by removing switches.

Transport Canada told the CBC that it's aware of three other fires and one thermal incident involving LionC school buses. In all three, the bus batteries were not the cause, nor were they affected by the flames.

While stories and photos of these EV fires can be shocking, the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance (CESBA) maintains that claims that electric buses are unsafe are not supported by data or expert analysis. “In fact, there have been fewer than 30 fires involving electric buses worldwide in 15 years,” wrote Valerie Tremblay, sustainable mobility lead with Green Communities Canada, on LinkedIn. “None of these incidents resulted in fatalities, and the majority occurred in depots, which were out of service.”

FireGator, which provides fire suppression systems for school buses, spoke out about the fire on LinkedIn, saying that stories like this are why these systems are essential for school bus safety. In 2017, the NTSB recommended that all school buses feature fire suppression systems. 

LION (formerly Lion Electric) has been in troubled waters for months, as the manufacturer faced bankruptcy, faulty buses in Maine, layoffs, closings, and federal investigations for fraud. Once the business was in liquidation, investors stepped in last May. They then announced that they’d remain in operation, focusing exclusively on the Quebec market, and voiding all U.S. warranties.

Stay tuned to School Bus Fleet for more on this developing topic.