Dallas charter school students escape bus fire unharmed
DALLAS - A charter bus filled with high school students returning to Dallas from a senior trip caught fire on a busy interstate Wednesday night.
Seniors from A+ Academy Charter School were celebrating their upcoming graduation with a two-day trip to San Antonio. It was a celebration marred when fire broke out in the rear of the bus along I-20, just five miles from the school.
“There was a car coming up beside us with their windows down pointing to the back of the bus,” remembered Kevin Spurgin, a teacher who was on the bus. “So we knew something was going on.”
“I really felt when the tire popped, I just thought it was a flat tire,” said senior David Perdomo. “I didn’t think nothing of it.”
Perdomo was sitting in the rear of the bus on the side where the fire sparked.
“The teachers told us to get off the bus, so we got off,” said Perdomo. “And that’s when I saw the fire and I was like I was like in shock.”
Adrenalin was flowing as teachers got the kids off the bus. But the next day, there was a different emotion for the students the teachers have watched grow up.
“We love them too and we care about them,” said Spurgin.
“We're not just teachers here,” said teacher Lisa Campbell. “That’s a special quality I think of our school because we're very close to our student body. These are our kids.”
“I never imagined ourselves going through this,” said senior Cydny Vega. “But it was just an awful feeling for anybody to feel.”
It was a senior trip they'll never forget.
“It was something I can tell my kids in the future about my senior trip,” said Perdomo. “I just hope it doesn’t happen to nobody else.”
No one was injured during the fire. The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation.