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Nov. 18--Firefighters are crediting a school bus driver for her quick evacuation of six students from her bus this morning.
Paul Corah, spokesman for the Portland Fire Bureau, said bus driver Kay Brown had six students in her charge and was on her regular route to Llewellyn Elementary School, 6301 S.E. 14th Ave., when she detected the odor of smoke coming from the bus' engine compartment.
"The engine was running rough and making clunking sounds," Corah said.
Corah said Brown immediately pulled the bus over at Southeast 18th Avenue and Claybourne Street and got all the students off the bus and called 9-1-1.
Shortly after the evacuation, the bus erupted in flames, Corah said. When firefighters arrived, the bus was burning furiously but the fire was quickly extinguished.
"She's a hero in our book," Corah said. The bus, firefighters discovered, is powered by propane rather than gasoline.
Matt Shelby, a spokesman for Portland Public Schools, agreed with that assessment: "Her actions were certainly heroic," he said.
While some bus drivers work for companies that contract with the school district, Brown is a district employee. Shelby was working to get more information on how long she has worked as a driver.
He said after she had time to reflect on what happened, she was "pretty shaken. She took the rest of the day off."
Firefighters at the scene discovered that the bus is powered by propane, but they were not immediately sure what caused the fire.
The fire remains under investigation.
--Stuart Tomlinson
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