Female teachers rescued two classes of children from a burning bus. It was a matter of seconds

Three buses full of elementary school children in Blovice were heading to a theater performance in Pilsen on Tuesday, April 23. One of them caught fire while driving on the main road near Kotousov. Schoolchildren from the fourth and fifth grades were traveling inside. “The guys in the back seat told me there was something smelly. A thin streak of smoke rose from the floor and quickly grew thicker. I started yelling at the driver to stop and open the door. I loudly gave instructions for the children to get out and immediately directed them to the field. There was already a lot of smoke coming from the bus and it was getting worse every second,” describes the situation, 5th grade teacher Alena Vodičková.

The bus was full of black smoke at that moment. “The children jumped out, left everything lying there. They were standing in theater clothes in a manured field and they were cold. The guys from my class reacted wonderfully, they climbed around the girls and made a windbreak for them because it was very windy. Some even hugged. I must say they behaved like gentlemen. The biggest shock for the children was when they stood there and saw how the bus was engulfed in flames, black smoke billowed from it, the windows cracked and the herons from the field started to fly over all this in fear,” continues the teacher, who returned to the burning bus. “I realized that we don’t have children counted. I ran inside, grabbing some backpacks and jackets. I had to reach under them to see if there was a child underneath. I have no idea how long it took,” adds Alena Vodičková.

A bus carrying children to the theater caught fire near Kotousov near Blovice

They took the schoolchildren from the burning bus into their care rescuers. “Their actions were excellent. The paramedics checked the children several times, and the police and firemen repeatedly asked about their condition after they extinguished the fire. This also contributed to the fact that the children remained calm. Thanks to Václav Hradský. When we were driving the children out, he was the only one who stopped the car on the main road before the rescue services arrived, ran to the bus driver, took a fire extinguisher there and ran to the back to put it out. At that moment, however, the fire was so extensive that it was not enough,” says the teacher.

According to the parents of the schoolchildren, a big thank you is in order. “If it hadn’t been for the presence of mind of the teacher, the children could have stayed there,” says the mother of a fifth-grader, Lenka Linhartová, adding: “My daughter told me that there was no panic during the fire, everything happened calmly. In addition, the teacher immediately told the children to call home so that their parents would find out about the fire from them before from the media.” Lenka Linhartová and other parents went to the school on Wednesday to thank Alena Vodičková and hand her a bouquet.

A truck caught fire in Pilsen. The driver escaped but ended up in hospital

According to Alena Vodičková, the assistant from her class, Michala Kubátová, and the deputy principal of the school, Václava Kopecká, who also traveled on the bus, helped a lot during the rescue operation. “They both did what they could, gathered the children, the assistant called the fire department. Our colleague Šárka Vlachová from the bus that followed us also reacted very quickly. He and his assistant evacuated him in time so that the children were not endangered by smoke or fire. It seems normal to me. I’m used to not panicking and organizing everything. Maybe it’s because I spent years guiding tourists to monuments and my husband and I do historical fencing. My husband leads the Men’s Unity group. From there, I am used to responding promptly, giving brief and clear orders,” concludes the teacher.