Valentine's Day a fiery reminder for Saskatoon school bus driver
When Saskatoon school bus driver Niels Mareschal was picking up the kids on his bus route Thursday, one of them greeted him with, "Happy fire day."
Two years ago, on Valentine's Day, the bus Mareschal was driving went up in flames. He feels OK joking about the two-year anniversary because no one was hurt.
On the day of the fire, Mareschal was nearing the end of his route, dropping off kids in the south end of the city.
His first indication something was amiss was when all of his instruments flashed at once.
"I thought that was weird," Mareschal recalled. "But everything was normal and buses do weird stuff all the time."
He made another stop and was heading to the next house on Macdermid Crescent when he and the kids started to notice a funny smell.
"We got to our next stop and a little puff of smoke came out of the corner of the hood," he said.
Mareschal shut the bus down, radioed into the office and did a mandatory check to the back of the bus..
"As I was walking back up to the front one of the kids said, 'I seen a flame.'
"I didn't wait for confirmation, I just got back on the radio and said we have a fire underneath the hood and we are evacuating," he said.
"Just like we practiced, everybody filed off the bus nice and calm."
Within a minute after leaving the bus smoke began pouring out of the hood and into the cab.
"Then all of a sudden it was a poof and the fire broke through the firewall and the cab filled up with intense flames," said Mareschal, who has been a driver for five years.
Within minutes the entire bus was engulfed.
Little was left of the bus by the time fire crews came and extinguished the fire.
Mareschal received a commendation from the fire department for getting the kids off safely.
He said the kids, who ranged from Grades 3 to 7, behaved perfectly in the crisis situation.
"I was super proud of the kids," he said. "I didn't do much more than get everybody off the bus.
"They were super calm and listened to instructions."
He said the cause of the fire turned out to be a wiring issue.
"It was definitely a Valentine's Day I'll never forget."
