Three people were rescued from a school bus fire during rush hour Tuesday morning in south New Jersey.
The fire occurred around 8 a.m. in Berlin, Camden County, when a driver, adult passenger and a student in a wheelchair were on the bus when flames suddenly erupted near the left front wheel.
Dave Gilfillan, a tow truck driver who was passing by, told NBC 10 that he quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher from his truck and blasted it on the front of the bus, causing the blaze to recede.
A volunteer firefighter and nearby police also acted fast to ensure no one was hurt and that they got off the bus safely as smoke billowed from the engine and rear of the vehicle.
Responding firefighters finished extinguishing the flames.
“Thank goodness there were so many people involved,” Berlin Police Department Lt. Joshua Smith said. “Although the world has a lot of bad to see, there’s still a lot of really, really good people that lurk in the shadows, that are looking to do good things daily.”
The Camden County Highway Department later used a sand truck to soak up the “substantial” fluid that leaked from the bus. It’s unclear whether the fluids were linked to the cause of the fire. An investigation is ongoing.
