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Investigation: Byrneville Elem. Bus Fire Similiar To North Carolina Blaze
April 12, 2012
A fire on a Byrneville Elementary School bus late last month is not the first time in recent months that particular model of bus has been destroyed by fire, NorthEscambia.com has learned. Meanwhile, the Escambia County School District says the district is continually inspecting buses in an attempt to prevent such incidents.
Moments after the driver and a dozen students escaped without injury from the emergency exit at rear of the bus March 30, the front dash erupted into flames on Thompson Road south of Century. The fire destroyed the dash and driver’s area of the bus and caused heavy smoke and heat damage throughout.
The bus, a 1999 Thomas Built Bus, was on loan as a temporary replacement bus from the Escambia County School District to Byrneville, a charter school that operates its own buses. The fire appeared to be the result of an electrical short circuit in the dash area, firefighters said. It was not an engine fire.
Just last month, a NorthEscambia.com investigation revealed, the state of North Carolina ordered all 1998-1999 Thomas Built Buses inspected after fire destroyed a bus from a Charlotte school.
North Carolina officials found that the North Carolina fire likely started with a heater wire rubbing against a metal valve. Every school district in North Carolina was ordered to inspect “all of the school buses and activity buses in this date range for similar wiring issues”, according to a state memo.
Escambia County only has 22 Thomas Built buses from 1998-1999 still in their fleet, according to Escambia School District Transportation Director Rob Doss. They are all “limited use”, he said, serving as substitute or field/sports trip buses.
“We will investigate the buses more thoroughly,” Doss said after the Thompson Road bus fire. The buses, he said, were inspected for the North Carolina wiring issue after the district became aware of the recall in that state. “We will call North Carolina to see if there’s anything that was not in their report. We want want to know everything they considered.”
“Children’s safety is our first priority,” Doss added.
The official cause of the Escambia County school bus fire remains under investigation.
Pictured: Fire heavily damaged this school bus the morning of March 30 near Century. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
10 Responses to “Investigation: Byrneville Elem. Bus Fire Similiar To North Carolina Blaze”
Lets think about this for a moment…I am a School Bus Mechanic….Sometimes these things happen. It happens to automobiles, buses, trucks, air planes,homes and such. There are so many wires on these buses, when they are built they are pretty well put together and precautions are taken to insure things like this dont happen. But now and then a wire will rub against something or a electrical component will short out. There are fuses to blow and circuit breakers to trip when there is a short, but they are not perfect, If You look at how many buses are on the road its a pretty good record We here in Escambia County have with these types of problems. Our bus inspectors do a great job, but to find a potential wire rub You would have to tear the whole bus apart every 30 days from front to rear top to bottom. Our drivers are trained very well to get the students out if a emergency happens. You see cars catch on fire sometimes, it does happen, Thank God nobody was hurt….But try to remember machinery breaks sometimes even if it is inspected good.
@Jane -
TOTALLY agree!”
“SO…fix the buses or remove them from use!!”
I meant everyone on the bus…I assume that the drivers are someone’s child at one time. However, the children are under the care of the driver and many are young enough not to know what to do in an emergency unless they have been trained to deal with an emergency of some sort. SO…fix the buses or remove them from use!!
“limited use” is not a good explanation for a danger this great. If adults or children were on the bus when it caught fire, it would not matter how many times it was being used. Pull them out of use!
should not matter that they are limited use and for sports / field trips ect, they obviously should not be used at all. Would hate for this to happen to any child / adult at anytime. They definately need to do something about this and not take a risk AT ALL, it could be too late to even take a small risk, lets be smart and not risk our childrens lives. Maybe it is time for all new buses when it comes to the safety of lives !
@Jane-
” This seems like a very dangerous situation for children…should someone investigate these fires?”
What about the bus driver? Looks like his/her life would have been just as much life threatening. My son used to be a school bus driver, and he is my ADULT child.
I agree – something must be done to protect both the children and the drivers. This is a very serious matter.
They should stick with the good ole BlueBirds, they took me to school many many days.
>>If I am not mistaken, this is the same bus that picks my son up and drops him off everyday….don’t think that classifies as “limited use”. ???
The bus that burned was a county bus loaned a temp replacement for one of the regular Byrneville buses. It is not on of the regular Byrneville buses.
If I am not mistaken, this is the same bus that picks my son up and drops him off everyday….don’t think that classifies as “limited use”. ???
Maybe Thompson needs to issue a recall? This seems like a very dangerous situation for children…should someone investigate these fires?