The AP is reporting that MTA employees were heros In New York last week. Using fire extinguishers to save the lives of 35 elementry school children in burning bus. Thank you.
The bus was transporting students from Brooklyn's P.S. 5 on Friday morning when it burst into flames near the Staten Island-bound toll plaza of the double-decked Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
A Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman says bridge workers used fire extinguishers to douse the flames and removed the 4- and 5-year-old students, their escorts and the driver.
There was a terrifyingly similar incident in Massachusetts in July of 2006:
Four toll collectors rescued 24 Shrewsbury children from a burning school bus yesterday on the Massachusetts Turnpike, officials said.
No injuries were reported in what authorities suspect was an electrical fire, said Thomas Farmer, a Turnpike Authority spokesman.
The fire occurred as the bus approached the toll plaza from westbound Interstate 90 to southbound Interstate 91, said Francine Dupont, a supervisor at the interchange.
The children, who were about 5 or 6 years old, were headed to Six Flags New England when toll collectors noticed smoke billowing from beneath the bus around 10:40 a.m., Dupont said.
The four toll collectors helped the driver unbuckle the children's seat belts and got them off the bus. The collectors used fire extinguishers at the plaza to put out the fire before firefighters arrived, Dupont said. The children were placed on a second school bus accompanying them.
These incidents are not alone, ready and charged fire extinguishers on buses are vital. Monitored fire extinguishers on buses is an idea who's time has come.
Story after the link
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