SALEM, Ore. — A Salem-Keizer school district bus caught fire while transporting students Tuesday afternoon. Passersby posted photos and videos to social media showing the bus stopped with smoke and flames billowing out the back. All seven children on the bus were evacuated, and there were no reported injuries.
The fire broke out just before 5 p.m. when the bus was on Pine Street Northeast at the intersection with Commercial Street Northeast, a little over a mile north of central Salem.
The children were evacuated quickly, and someone called 911 right away, according to Brian Carrara, assistant chief of business operations at the Salem Fire Department.
Photos and video from the scene show the fire apparently originating from the engine compartment at the back of the bus. Fire crews arrived within minutes, Carrara said, and they got the fire extinguished in less than four minutes on the scene.
Travis Hanson, who took several photos of the scene, told KGW that he and his girlfriend had been driving behind the bus for several blocks and noticed some sort of fluid coming off of it and landing on their windshield, and then the bus caught fire moments later. When the bus stopped at the intersection, he said he ran up to help evacuate the students.
“The bus was smoking so bad, it was filling the street up with smoke,” he recalled to KGW. "I’m just glad I was here to help. I don’t know if I wasn’t there at that time or how long it would have taken to get the doors open... I don’t know what would have happened to those kids if they would have passed out from that smoke.”
School district Communications Director Aaron Harada told KGW that the students on the bus were being driven home from Parrish Middle School, and the bus caught fire "in or near the engine area."
The students and driver evacuated, and parents, like Heather Holum, were called and came to pick up their kids.
"I was nervous and scared because I had three (kids) on the bus," she said. "I held them all. I was like, 'Give me hugs.'"
The district is still investigating the incident.
Editor's note: This story originally stated that there were nine children on the bus, based on information from the Salem Fire Department. The school district later clarified that it had initially reported that there were nine students on the bus, but subsequently confirmed that there were only seven.