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School bus catches fire; no students injured
Published October 10, 2009
No students were injured Friday afternoon when the school bus they were riding caught fire.
The incident happened on U.S. Highway 90 East around 3:15 p.m. while bus number 100 loaded with students from Dr. Fermin Calderon Elementary was heading to the Val Verde Park Estates neighborhood.
An electrical short sparked a fire under the hood of the bus, and the driver pulled to the side of the highway so students could file out, which backed east-bound traffic up for about a mile.
The fire was contained to the engine compartment thanks, in part, to a passerby identified as Robert Lashmidt, who stopped and doused the blaze with a portable extinguisher.
Del Rio Fire and Rescue Department firefighters said when they arrived the bus was still smoking, but the fire was nearly out.
Four students sitting at the back of the bus said they used training they learned in school to open the back emergency door and help others safely out of the vehicle.
About 40 children were on the bus at the time of the fire, according to officials.
Rick Maldonado, San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District transportation director, said every year students watch a video teaching them how to react in an emergency on a bus and then practice those techniques.
“They opened the door, took their 40 paces after exiting the bus…they did exactly what they were supposed to do,” said Maldonado.
Maldonado said the bus is an early-to-mid 90s model. Another school bus picked up the students to take them the remainder of the way home.
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