Tire blows and Kansas bus with 30 kids on field trip catches fire

Thirty eighth-graders and three adults escaped unharmed from a bus fire that started after a tire blew Thursday, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Flames engulfed the bus from Fort Scott Unified School District. The bus was a total loss.

It happened at around 2:50 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 69 southbound in Linn County. The outside rear tire blew on the driver’s side. The rear has dual tires, so there would be at least four tires in the back. The 44-year-old Fort Scott man driving the bus kept it moving until he could pull over in a safe spot.

The Fort Scott school district said the eighth-graders were headed back from a field trip in Kansas City when the fire started.

“The bus was pulled over when it started smoking and the kids were evacuated from the bus,” the district said in a Facebook post. “The bus then caught flames and is now a total loss.”

The fire started on the tire that blew, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper wrote in a crash report.

This story was originally published October 4, 2024 at 10:48 AM.