[Press Release] : City of Columbia Missouri Information Request

[Press Releases]

No Injuries during Morning School Bus Fire

Columbia Fire Fighters were called at 8:48 A.M. to the intersection of Providence Road and Stadium Blvd. for a report of a vehicle fire.

On arrival, crews found smoke and flames coming from the rear engine compartment of a school bus, and all of the students evacuated.  Fire crews conducted a search of the bus to ensure all passengers were off the bus.  The flames were brought under control within five minutes.  The bus is owned by First Student.  There were no injuries and no damage estimate is available at this time.

The Driver, Larry T. Armstrong, indicated to fire crews that he was driving northbound on Providence Road and the bus was "running rough."  Near Memorial Stadium, the engine died and he observed a large amount of smoke coming from the engine compartment.  Mr. Armstrong rapidly evacuated the students from the bus, into the parking lot of Memorial Stadium.  He then returned and discharged a portable fire extinguisher onto the fire, helping to control the flames prior to Fire Department arrival.

The bus was en route to Grant Elementary School with 28 students on board at the time of the fire.

A second bus from First Student, as well as a bus from the Columbia Fire Department, responded to the scene to assist.

The Columbia Public School District conducts school bus emergency evacuation drills twice a year for all elementary school students as required by law.  

#-##


The information you have requested is available for download (or will be within the 10 minutes from the time this message was sent) from the City of Columbia Information Distribution System at 

 http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/webapps/retrieval/retrieval.php?info=daf85b5b75ba4cf9723ab434ae3198c378bf717e5bfde5cd24ff99ef924e754a305baef4f8ec97d919545d123008cb986101d187b75ffa6928cbf0e5c7fa79922929e4c4320a9959133a74963f6f831659268c1057b027538cae9e8fd4d0cedf465108621bdd80e45715c11f6297abf45f9ed486d0c3eba232f5111e6b969983

(To save the file, click on the link and select 'Save Target/Link As...'. If your email client does not dispay the URL as a link, you will need to copy the entire link and paste it into your browser. Please note the URL is long and may wrap around onto multiple lines.) 

You will have access to this information for the next 3 days.