Calhoun County, SC (WLTX) - A school bus in Calhoun County went up in smoke on Wednesday afternoon, just three days into the school year. The transportation director for the district says the 2001 Thomas rear-engine model caught fire in front of the district office on Herlong Ave. around 5 p.m.
No children were on the bus and the driver made it off the bus safely.
Wednesday's school bus fire raises concerns about the older model buses that are still on the roads throughout South Carolina.
The SC Department of Education has been phasing out the 1995-1996 Thomas engine models for the past few years, as Education Lottery funds provided $20 million towards school bus replacement.
"We had 1,900 total here in the state and have removed 1,700 from the road," says Matt Orr, spokesman for the Department of Education.
Less than 200 of the '95-'96 models remain and they are expected to be removed from the state's fleet by mid-October.
The concern over the '95-'96 model buses grew as numerous bus fires took place around the state.
"Those models had more mechanical and structural issues, even more so than our older buses," says Orr.
Back in May of 2016, a school bus caught fire near the Sandhills shopping center. The driver and two students on the bus got off safely.
In October of 2016, a school bus caught on fire at Dutch Fork Elementary School. All of the children and the driver on board also made it off safely.
In December of 2017, a school bus driver noticed that a bus in the Richland 1 School District lot was on fire. He rushed to put the fire out and the bus was removed from service.
In January of 2018, a bus caught on fire in Anderson County right after the children got off the bus.
As for the bus fire in Calhoun County, the transportation director says that the 2001 model that caught on fire had a rear engine and that the type of bus model is also being phased out around the state.