At the beginning of April, you might have seen a few news stories from various publications about the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD)'s new Electric Motorcycle Response Program. Social media posts and news stories alike abounded, and the comments mainly focused on two things: Whether it was an April Fool's joke, and debate about how good an idea it is to use e-bikes in the types of situations that call for firefighters in the first place.
The Internet is the Internet, and both humans and bots alike can quickly flood a comment section with a lot of things that may or may not make sense. But the thing is, neither of those responses seemed particularly out of line. April Fool's jokes, whether you think they're funny or not, abound. As for the perceived fire risks, there've been plenty of tales of woe involving e-bikes with malfunctioning batteries causing serious fire damage to structures, including an entire garage belonging to a police department in Idaho.
That's why, to get to the bottom of both of these questions, I reached out to the LAFD to get more information about the program. Here's what an official spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department told me.
