School bus driver saves nine students as bus catches fire

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A New Orleans school bus driver is hailed a hero after saving nine students as her bus went up in flames.

“As soon as I seen the bus smoking, my instinct was get them off of the bus,” said Kia Rousseve.

On Wednesday morning, Rousseve was about to make her fifth stop when she noticed something was off. She pulled over about a block off of Tchoupitoulas.

“I seen the smoke and then a little girl came and told me the bus was on fire underneath,” Rousseve said. “I got them off.”

Rousseve quickly ushered the students from kindergarten through eighth grade off the bus. According to Rousseve, she was able to use the front door instead of the emergency exit.

“I turned the bus off and got off. When I got off, the bus blew up, Rousseve said. “All I heard was boom, boom, boom. I was like oh my God, the bus blew up.”

Rousseve said she was thinking about her child as she saved the student on her bus. She works for Community Academies of New Orleans and said she has been driving school buses for three years. CANO calls her actions “Courage on wheels.”

“I feel great about saving other kids lives and saving my life,” Rousseve said.

Rousseve believes a faulty alternator is to blame for the fire. She said she’s proud to share her heroism story and that God was watching over everyone on her bus.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.