APOPKA, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools said Wednesday that it will inspect more than 100 buses in its fleet, a day after one of them erupted in flames and exploded minutes after the students were off.
The school bus, carrying students from Piedmont Lakes Middle School, caught fire on Cimmaron Ash Way near Wekiva Springs Road in Apopka.
[RELATED: Witnesses describe blaze]
No one was injured.
"I'm just happy that she's here safe. It could have been a lot worse," Sean Rogers said Wednesday after picking his daughter up from the bus stop near where the fire happened.
The 15-year veteran bus driver pulled over after being alerted by another driver that the bus was smoking. The students were either picked up by a parent or placed onto another bus before the bus ignited and became engulfed in flames.
Several News 6 viewers captured the blaze on video.
The bright yellow school bus is now charred and burnt all over. It sits in one of the district's bus depots.
"It's an isolated incident, I think, and we have not had any problems before. Buses go through inspections every 30 days," Bill Wen, the Senior Director of Transportation Services for OCPS said.
Wen says drivers also do bus checks before and after their routes.
To be safe, Wen tells News 6 the district is inspecting all 107 of its 2009 models. To figure out if your student rides a 2009 model bus, look at the bus number. If the first two digits are a "2" and a "9" that means it is from 2009 and will undergo extra checks.
"We're going to pay close attention to what's under the hood, obviously where it initiated, to see if there is anything that may cause a fire underneath, whether that's a loose wire, a frayed wire, insulation is gone, a loose hose," Wen said. "We'll make sure we through that before we put it back in service."
OCPS says it will hire an outside investigator to inspect the charred bus. There is a recall for the make, model, and year, but district leaders say they checked and this specific bus does not fall under the recall. Wen adds they do not believe there are any issues with its fleet.
"I think there's really nothing to worry about. We have all the precautions in place to make sure everything is safe," he said.
It's not known what sparked the fire. The district says it could take a month before they figure out what happened.
Doug Alexander was one of several viewers that sent News 6 cellphone video showing the burning school bus.
"All of a sudden, 'Ka-boom! There was one explosion, and then a few minutes later another explosion," Alexander said.
He said he saw the driver running away from the bus minutes before it exploded.
Another witness said he has a message for the bus driver.
"I would tell him thank you very much for saving all those children's lives," he said.