Bus taking B.C. kids on field trip bursts into flames

No one was harmed when a bus transporting elementary school children to a field trip in B.C. caught fire Thursday, with the flames fully engulfing the coach, spreading to an outbuilding and prompting wildfire concerns.

First responders in Chilliwack were called to the scene around 9:30 a.m. for reports of a vehicle fire on Vedder Mountain Road, according to RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Krista Vrolyk, who adds the bus was carrying a class full of children from West Vancouver to a nearby waterpark.

"Fortunately, before the flames started, all of the occupants of the bus were able to safely exit the bus," she tells CTV News.

"Ultimately it was quick action from the teaching staff as well as the bus driver to get all of us the kids off the bus safely, and very quick action in response from the Chilliwack Fire Department."

Vrolyk says the kids were older, estimating they were in Grade 6 or 7, which made it easier to get them off the bus safely than if they were primary school aged. 

The location of the blaze, at the foot of heavily-wooded Vedder Mountain, prompted crews to notify the BC Wildfire Service of the potential for a forest fire. Fortunately, Vrolyk says, the fire was knocked down before it could spread any further. The fire danger rating in the area, as in much of B.C.'s Lower Mainland, is currently extreme due to tinder-dry conditions and persistent, unseasonably high temperatures.

Photos from the scene show thick clouds of smoke billowing into the air, and flames shooting up from the bus and the structure and scorched trees on the side of the road. All that remains of the coach is a charred shell.

A bus carrying schoolchildren caught fire in Chilliwack, B.C. on June 8, 2023. (Photo submitted by Angela Bergen) A bus carrying schoolchildren caught fire in Chilliwack, B.C. on June 8, 2023. (Photo submitted by Angela Bergen)

No one was harmed when a bus transporting elementary school children to a field trip in B.C. caught fire Thursday, with the flames fully engulfing the coach, spreading to an outbuilding and prompting wildfire concerns.A bus carrying schoolchildren caught fire in Chilliwack, B.C. on June 8, 2023. (Photo submitted by Angela Bergen)

A bus carrying schoolchildren caught fire in Chilliwack, B.C. on June 8, 2023. (Photo submitted by Angela Bergen)

The fire also knocked out power for thousands of customers in the area. The schoolchildren were picked up by another bus and taken to Cultus Lake Waterpark, but when they arrived the slides were temporarily out of service. Power in the area has since been restored.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.