Gods, this is awful.
(Dallas-AP) September 23, 2005 - A sheriff's official in Texas says a bus that was apparently carrying Hurricane Rita evacuees has exploded on a highway near Dallas.
Officials say at least one person is dead and others are injured. Aerial images show emergency crews examining people near the bus, which was fully engulfed in flames.
More as it becomes available.
You have to wonder if the fire started because of engine overheating in the gridlock.
Update Thanks to Tex in comments, here is a link to the Houston Chronicle story, which says the fire started as a brake fire then the explosion happened when it spread to passengers' oxygen tanks. The passengers were all elderly evacuees from Brighton Gardens Assisted Living in Bellaire. The death toll is at least 24.
The wreck happened on Interstate 45, already congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast. The bus was engulfed in flames and reduced to a blackened, burned-out shell, with large blue tarps covering the bodies. About 20 emergency vehicles surrounded it.
"Looks like the brakes overheated and caught the bus on fire,'' said Capt. Jesse Garcia of the Dallas Fire Department. "And the reason the fire was so intense is that there were oxygen bottles on board.
He said witnesses reported first seeing sparks from the front wheel wells of the bus, then hearing several explosions when the fire reached extra bottles of oxygen that nurses brought for patients.
The staff tried to pull patients from the burning bus, according to witnesses.
"There were several people attempting to pull patients out of there, but it got too hot,'' he said. "There was nothing they could do.
"Once the oxygen bottles exploded, the rescue attempts were over."
Terrible.
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