NITRO, W.Va. — A bit of training underway in Nitro Thursday for Kanawha County School’s new electric buses that will be hitting the road tomorrow morning for the first day of school.
First responders from Nitro, St. Albans and Cross Lanes came together for the training at the Nitro Volunteer Fire Department that included a rundown of EV safety procedures and hands on demonstrations.
The only downside of the EV buses have been electrical fires known to suddenly break out on them which is why Kanawha County Schools and the county’s fire departments, EMS and law enforcement have teamed up to make sure they are all up-to-date on the new set of safety standards and technology for them to prevent such a situation from occurring.
KCS Transportation Director Jason Redman said it’s crucial first responders and school transportation officials work together on this. 
“Communication is key, it’s especially key for our main goal which is the safe transportation of students to and from school, we have to have constant communication,” Redman said.
He said KCS and Kanawha County Metro 911 are always communicating, not just about EV buses but safety standards across a number of issues regarding transportation.
Chief Casey Mathes of the Nitro FD said it’s also crucial for fire personnel, EMS and police officers to know exactly what’s going on within the buses.
“They need to know, they need to keep up with the latest technology and do the best they can to mitigate any situation that can occur with the battery systems that are coming out on the roads today,” Mathes said.
He said they were told this is the second generation technology on these particular EV buses that will be out in the county this year.
However, Mathes said the technology is constantly changing and it’s important they keep up-to-date knowledge on the particular technology.
“It comes out at a rapid pace, so the technology today could be a lot more complicated in the next generation, so it comes out at a rapid pace it’s hard to keep up with the basic technology and how to circumvent the challenges it brings if a situation were to occur,” said Mathes.
Regardless of the challenges, Redman said EV buses are the future of school transportation and companies are getting better and better at perfecting them.
He said there are now a lot of EV buses out there on the road already and it’s often hard to distinguish them from regular buses.
“One of the great things that was brought up today, how are first responders supposed to tell if this is an electric bus or if this is a diesel and that’s something we’re going to take back to the manufacturer and we’re going to make sure we have each bus clearly labeled that this is an electric bus,” said Redman.
Members of the Nitro, St. Albans and Tyler Mountain Fire Departments, Nitro and St. Albans Police Departments, Kanawha County Ambulance Authority and Kanawha County Emergency Management all took part in Thursday’s training exercises.