Trumansburg Bus Catches Fire
On Monday, September 25th the Trumansburg Girls Varsity Soccer program boarded the bus for their soccer game against Marathon. The sun was shining, the team’s morale was high, their undefeated season intact. It was business as usual, until, that is, it wasn’t. The girls’ bus began to climb the hill outside Ithaca on Route 13, shifting gears and giving off the customary groan of a vehicle under duress. This time, however, the groan was accompanied by a foul smelling odor that obscured the smell of teen spirit already present on the bus. The bus crested the hill and motored on toward its destination, unaware of the developing danger. As the trip progressed, the group of athletes slowly became conscious of some irregularity; the smell became worse. The bus’s air conditioning was working overtime, with 45 bodies aboard and the temperature outside hovering in the upper 80’s. At this point in the trip, panic had not hit the passengers aboard, but there was an uncomfortable aura surrounding the situation. Clearly there was something not quite right, as many of the players complained of being lightheaded.
Somewhere outside of Marathon, it became clear that this was an ill-fated trip; the bus began to visibly smoke. At this point the bus driver, Tom Major, aborted the mission and pulled off to the side of the road, with some active encouragement from the coaches onboard. As students began to disembark, the plume of smoke coming from the engine became a thicker and actual flames appeared from under the hood. Modified coach Mark Baxendall yelled to the back of the bus for someone to open the rear hatch. Senior Co-Captain Sarah Koeng, who was seated at the back of the bus, heard the command, threw open the rear door and preceded to jump out the back. “I didn’t realize that nobody had followed me until I turned around and saw that no one was behind me.” Apparently unaware of the danger at hand, the rest of the team headed for the front and walked through all of the smoke to go out the front. “I jogged a little ways away from the bus and turned around to see the bus burst into flames,” Koeng said. Within minutes a cloud of black smoke had engulfed the entire bus, and shortly thereafter one of the bus tires exploded, creating a bright orange fireball. As the flames crept their way across the length of the bus, the athletes that were once aboard the flaming vehicle backed farther and farther away from the bus until they were completely out of harm's way. Many of the athletes began to immediately post pictures of the scene as it unfolded:
Trumansburg High School Principal Jon Koeng, whose daughter was aboard the bus, had been traveling about twenty minutes behind the bus. He pulled up to find a smoking wreck, the charred hull of the bus.
A few parents traveling to the game arrived on the scene, relieved to find everybody safe from harm. Marathon High School generously sent a school bus to pick up the team and deliver them to Marathon High School, where students waited for either their parents to pick them up or for another bus to take them back to Trumansburg. It was quickly decided that the team did not feel comfortable playing the game given what had transpired, as many of them were still processing what had just happened. While the game has been rescheduled for later in the season, there are still many questions beyond the soccer pitch that remain unanswered at this point. What caused the bus to catch fire? Are there regular bus safety drills and safety protocols in place for athletic teams as well as the general student body?
From a questionable scent to an inferno, this ordinary trip turned to a perilous afternoon. Luckily, none were harmed in the events that transpired. The Trumansburg varsity girls rebounded well, securing a 5-0 win at home over Union Springs on Wednesday evening. Gracie Wright, Hannah Morpurgo, Sarah Koeng, Kelly Proctor and Taylor Miller all scored in the lopsided victory.
