Engine Smoke With Two Wheelchair Users
You are driving a bus with 14 students, including two wheelchair users, on a two-lane road. Smoke comes from the rear engine compartment. The shoulder is narrow, but a convenience store lot is 200 feet ahead. Wind is from the left. You have a fire extinguisher and a two-way radio. The students are calm, but one wheelchair user is panicking. The bus is 28 feet long and the lot entrance is wide enough. Traffic behind is light. Your emergency door is at the rear, near the smoke. You are 3 miles from school. The nearest fire station is 6 miles away. A wheelchair lift is at the side door. The parking brake is set.
1. Do you stop on the shoulder or pull into the lot, and do you evacuate?
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If the bus can still move safely, pull into the convenience store lot rather than stopping on a narrow shoulder where students would unload into traffic. Stop away from the store entrance and away from fuel pumps. Set the parking brake, shut off the engine, and evacuate. Smoke from the engine compartment can precede a fire, so do not wait to see flames. Move the students upwind, which is to the left side because the wind is from the left, and at least 100 feet from the bus. Keep them together and away from the lot entrance. Take the radio and fire extinguisher, but do not reboard once students are off.
2. How do you evacuate the two wheelchair users without using the lift?
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Do not use the wheelchair lift during a fire or smoke emergency; it is slow and may lose power. Use the side or rear emergency exit and carry or assist each student according to your training and the student's needs. Assign two helpers per wheelchair user, clear the exit path first, and move the students to the assembly point upwind. If the wheelchair cannot be moved quickly, carry the student and leave the chair. Do not block the exit with equipment. Keep talking to the panicking student in a calm, direct voice and give one instruction at a time. The priority is to get everyone off the bus and accounted for, not to save equipment.
3. What communication and accountability steps follow?
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Call 911 with the store location, the smoke condition, and the number of students. Then call dispatch and report that the bus is evacuated and where the students are assembled. Count all 14 students and keep them together. Send a responsible adult or older student to the lot entrance to meet firefighters only if that person can stay clear of traffic. Do not let students reboard or retrieve belongings. Document the smoke, the evacuation time, the exit used, and any student injury. The judgment point is that a smoke report is an evacuation report until a responder says otherwise.