All Eastbound lanes on I-10, just after Cassat Avenue, were shut down this morning due to a school bus fire. I was driving Westbound and passed it just as the first fire trucks arrived. I witnessed the bus engulfed in flames around 8:30 am Wednesday.
The fire caused the traffic in all Eastbound lanes to be at a standstill, and all lanes were backed up for miles. The School bus was Durham bus No. 349.
The fire was caused by the school bus running over a large mattress in the middle of the interstate. The same mattress was in my Eastbound lane earlier this morning on my way into downtown while taking my daughter to school. It was the same color of the interstate and with heavy traffic and the sun glare, it was difficult to see until close aproach. We had to swerve into other lanes and we saw several near-miss accidents as other cars were swerving into other lanes as well. Sadly, this bus was unable to avoid it. The driver was able to exit the bus without injury and there were no students onboard. I’m thinking my lucky stars this morning and glad tht nobody was injured in this mishap.