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Driver, nurse save 4 special-needs students from bus fire

Alfred “Al” Lewis pulls the bus over, opens the passenger door and window to let the smoke out, sprays the fire extinguisher into the vents, and gathers the students in wheelchairs and carries them outside to safety. Meanwhile, the nurse helps the other two students out of the rear door.

April 4, 2014
1 min to read


OSSEO, Minn.  — The Star Tribune reports that bus driver Alfred “Al” Lewis and a nurse, whose name was not disclosed, helped four Osseo Area Schools/ISD 279 special-needs students — two of them in wheelchairs — out of the bus after Lewis smelled smoke and saw a fire inside the bus.

Lewis told the newspaper that he pulled the bus over, opened the passenger door and his window to let the smoke out of the bus, grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it into the vents, and then calmly gathered the students in wheelchairs and carried them outside to safety. Meanwhile, the nurse helped two of the students out of the rear door of the bus.  

Soon after, the bus was quickly gutted by the fire, according to the StarTribune.

A full-time driver for First Student for six years, Lewis also told the Star Tribune that he was happy once all the children were safe and that he “just did what we’re trained to do.” He resumed driving his regular bus route after the incident.

To read the full story, click here.


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