Driver Gets All Students Safely Off Burning Tulsa School Bus

Fire destroyed a Tulsa Public School bus Monday morning.

The bus was on its way to William Penn Elementary, but the driver pulled over at the intersection of Mohawk and Birmingham because of engine problems.

She then noticed flames coming from underneath the dash, near the steering column and quickly got the 15 kids to safety.

"She did fantastic, she did an outstanding job," said Tulsa Fire Captain Michael Ward.

Tulsa fire says her quick reaction made a huge difference since the kids got off before the fire could spread.

"Because the smoke was so thick, she would have had to use the emergency exit out the back of the bus, and then you're looking at respiratory issues and smoke inhalation just like a house fire," ward explained.

The bus was destroyed by the fire, hardly anything's left, just a blackened shell. It's one of more than a hundred TPS buses that run on compressed natural gas.

TPS officials say they're not sure how the fire started, but they are looking over all of their CNG buses to make sure there aren't any problems.

"Check the components, check all the connections and everything and make sure we don't have any types of leaks or anything," said Terry Evans of TPS Transportation.

TPS has already converted 140 of its 275 buses to compressed natural gas and says it doesn't plan to convert anymore. But when it buys new buses there's a good chance those will run on CNG.

The Clean Vehicle Education Foundation studied more than 8000 vehicles that run on CNG. It found that of those only seven were involved in some kind of fire incident, and only one was directly caused by the fuel system itself. TPS says it has no reason to believe CNG engines are dangerous.

"If there would have been a safety issue with the CNG engines we would not be using them, definitely would not be using them," Evans said.