Oct. 05--BROWNSVILLE -- No one was injured in a school bus fire Friday afternoon that sent plumes of black smoke high above downtown Brownsville and blocked northbound expressway frontage road traffic for nearly an hour.
All 29 Porter High School students on bus No. 528 were evacuated before flames became visible, Brownsville Independent School District Police Chief Oscar Garcia said.
Garcia said the quick thinking of the bus driver prevented the fire from being a life-threatening situation.
"The kids are safe," he said. "She did was she was trained to do."
Garcia said the driver noticed smoke coming from beneath the dashboard of the bus as it approached East 14th Street on North Frontage Road shortly before 4:30 p.m.
The bus driver immediately pulled over, stopped and directed the students to get out of the vehicle, Garcia said.
When Brownsville Fire Department engines arrived minutes later, the bus was engulfed in flames.
Personnel from three fire engines worked to extinguish the flames, reducing the raging fire to a smoldering shell of a bus by 4:40 p.m.
Brownsville police continued to reroute traffic onto the expressway and secondary roads while the crews cleaned up the area with dozens of bystanders looking on. Many vehicles were forced onto narrow Lincoln Street where drivers had to maneuver around parked cars as well as oncoming traffic.
A second school bus arrived at the scene to take students home.
Garcia and fire department personnel said there was no known cause of the fire yet, although Garcia suggested the bus would be a total loss.
Copyright 2013 - The Brownsville Herald, Texas
