Heroic Teacher Saves 38 Kids From Burning Bus

A Polk County math teacher is being credited with saving 38 children when the bus they were riding on broke into flames.

The incident unfolded Wednesday morning as a bus from the Discovery Academy in Lake Alfred began to experience mechanical problems and started smoking, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Gaskins wrote in an email to media.

The driver recognized a problem, pulled to the shoulder and stopped as the bus caught fire, Gaskins said.

The driver has been identified as math teacher Kristina Buhrman, NBC reported. She stopped the bus in time to ensure that the nearly 40 middle school students onboard were safely away from danger before flames overtook the vehicle.

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Buhrman was substituting as a driver on the day of the fire.

“The bus driver did a fabulous job in getting all those kids off in time, or, as you would have known, if they didn’t get off, it would have been a terrible thing,” highway patrol Sgt. Mary Godino was quoted by ABC as saying.

None of the children were injured during the incident, but Interstate 4 was closed in both directions for a time due to the heavy smoke cover.

The bus, Gaskins wrote, “was later completely consumed by the fire.”

Photo courtesy of the Florida Highway Patrol