Bystanders Save Students From Bus Fires, Crash

Good Samaritans and first responders averted injuries in several recent school-bus incidents. In Berlin, Camden County, N.J., on Oct. 21 tow-truck operator Dave Gilfillan and nearby volunteers used extinguishers to evacuate a child, an adult passenger and the driver from a smoking small school bus before crews controlled heavy smoke and fluid leaks; police said there were no injuries and the cause is under investigation. In Madera County, Calif., on Sept. 4 farmworkers Carlos Perea Romero and Angel Zarco flagged down and evacuated nearly 20 students from a stalled school bus seconds before the rear burst into flames; the bus was destroyed, all children escaped, and the men were later honored by county leaders. In East Bethel, Minn., parent Kari Thorp saw flames under her daughter’s bus on her Ring camera and helped the driver evacuate 22 East Bethel Elementary students as the bus’s tires exploded and the vehicle burned; firefighters extinguished the blaze and investigators are probing the cause. Separately, a school bus collided with a commercial van in New City, Rockland County, N.Y.; victims were taken to hospital as a precaution and no serious injuries were reported. Officials and community leaders praised the swift interventions, and investigations into the fires and the New York crash are ongoing.