The Red Cross helped calm and attend to students after a fire broke out on their school bus in Kansas City, reported 41 Action News.
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The First Student school bus was only three blocks from its destination and had six students aboard when it caught fire on Tuesday morning. The intersection where the bus was left as the driver pulled over and quickly evacuated the students also happened to be the location of the city’s Red Cross headquarters.
An American Red Cross Disaster program specialist and her team responded, gathering the students inside and giving them water and coloring books to keep them occupied, while firefighters battled the blaze outside.
Eyewitness video, which can be seen below, captured flames and gray smoke pouring from the front of the bus. By the time firefighters extinguished the fire, the front of the bus was blackened and destroyed.
First Student spokesperson Jen Biddinger told local station 41 Action News, “there’s nothing more important than the safety of the students we transport, and we take that responsibility very seriously.”
The fire began in the engine compartment and early investigation indicates mechanical failure was the cause.
