Quick and decisive action by a South Carolina school bus driver helped save 56 students after the vehicle caught fire, WSPA reported.
Teresa Stroble was driving her normal bus route in Spartanburg County when she heard a ninth-grade student yelling from the back.
“The thing that made me react real fast, the student actually said the bus is on fire,” Stroble told WSPA. “She didn’t say I smell smoke. She didn’t say, it’s smoking back here. She said the bus is on fire, and so when you hear that you evacuate.”
Stroble pulled over quickly and got all the students — comprised of students from elementary, intermediate and high school — off the bus and at a safe distance before the vehicle burst into flames.
The "seven-year veteran driver and teacher assistant did exactly as she was trained and quickly and calmly evacuated all 56 students from the bus, and got them to a safe location," the school district said in an online statement. “She is a true hero.”
Firefighters arrived on the scene minutes later and contained the fire, CBS News reported.
“I can’t think about what might’ve happened, God blessed us. He got us out,” Stroble told WSPA.
Stroble was back on her route the next morning.
“She did exactly what she was trained to do,” Superintendent Scott Turner told WSPA. “She was calm. She kept the students calm. She made sure they were safe. They were her first priority. She's our hero today.”
At Duncan Elementary, students have signed a banner proclaiming Stroble their superhero.
“I feel blessed. I don’t feel like a hero,” Stroble said.
Officials from the South Carolina Department of Education were working with local fire officials to determine the cause of the blaze.
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