School Bus Caught Fire In NJ As Students Safely Evacuated

A school bus caught fire in New Jersey this week, forcing 10 children on board the bus to evacuate. The bus driver is being credited for helping lead the children to safety.

Police said the school bus caught fire while it was driving to Blairstown Elementary School in Warren County on Monday morning.

No one was injured in the Hoagland Road fire and all students were accounted for, police said

The bus started smoking on the way to school Monday morning, prompting the driver to pull over and evacuate the 10 children on board without incident, police said.

Kathleen Dolan, a 10-year driver with the Stocker Bus Company, told The New Jersey Herald that the bus was on a curve of the road, "so I pulled up a little further to an open field, put the bus in park and shut it off."

After getting the children to exit through the front door, Dolan told The Herald she led students through a field and into a nearby driveway where a resident opened up her home to them.

"I'm not a hero. I love my job and I'm so glad I kept my cool and was able to do what I have been trained to do," she told the publication.

"I had an angel with me today," she told The Herald.

Police told Lehigh Valley Live that they rushed out information on the incident because "everybody is a little sensitive" after the crash Thursday on Interstate 80 in Morris County that took the lives of a student and a teacher from a school in Paramus. Blairstown Elementary School Principal Bruce Leal also came to the scene, police said.

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Photos courtesy of Bob Halberstadt, Blairstown News