A hero: NC school bus driver got 38 children off bus before it burst into flames

Parents are calling a Harnett County school bus driver a hero after she was able to get children safely off the bus before a massive fire.

The district said Monica Tyson-Crawford guided students to safety Tuesday minutes before her bus burst into flames on the way to Benhaven Elementary.

A spokesperson from Harnett County Schools said Tyson-Crawford pulled over onto Olive Farm Drive after smelling smoke around 7 a.m. She immediately went through safety protocols and removed all 38 children and herself from the bus before the fire.

Photos shared with WRAL News show thick smoke filling the air and a badly charred bus. The flames were hot enough to not only scorch the pavement but melt metal.

Parents said they could see the plume of smoke from a half-mile away.

One parent, Britt Albright, sent raw video of the fire to WRAL News.

"My son is okay, he was scared at first not knowing if his friends got out okay," Albright told WRAL News.

Brad Luellen, who had just dropped his son off at school, was thankful for the driver’s quick thinking.

"I'm just happy no one was hurt," Luellen said.

Harnett County Schools confirmed bus number 206 was involved in the incident. The bus was a 2016 model Freightliner built by Thomas Built Buses.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Multiple agencies are working to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but initial findings show the fire was not related to an engine malfunction.

Firefighters said it took about five minutes to bring the fire under control.

School bus fires are rare but they do occur. In 2019, a school bus fire at Holly Springs High School was linked to a worn wire. A school bus also caught fire in Cary the same year.