Driver saves passengers on burning bus

Orange (WTNH) - A Connecticut transit bus caught fire and the driver is being credited with helping people get out of harm's way.

Falaria Payton-Brown has been driving a city bus for 19-years; she has seen fights, been maced, had tires blown out and had people smash her windshield with rocks. But Thursday morning, on the Boston Post Road, in Orange was a first.

"One of the passengers said 'driver there is smoke getting in the bus' and then a buzzer went off," said Payton-Brown. "Our alarm went off so I looked in the rear view mirror and the rear of the bus was engulfed in smoke."

Oil had been leaking from the bus and caught fire, smoke rolled out of the back of the bus and flames shot out from the undercarriage.

"I pulled it off to the side and told everybody to get off the bus now, opened up both doors, and everybody ran off the bus," said Payton-Brown.

She said by the time she got the bus to the side of the road, the smoke was so thick she threw open the doors and looked back and couldn't see the back of the bus.

"I couldn't believe it, it was like a building had exploded that was how thick the smoke was," said Payton-Brown

Firefighters arrived minutes later and put out the fire. They give a lot of credit to Payton-Brown; she got all 15 people off a burning bus including a baby in a stroller and was the last one to leave.

"She parked the vehicle, got all of the passengers off to a safe location, and she did an excellent job of that," said an onlooker.

While people are calling her a hero for staying calm while driving a flaming bus, she said after 19-years of fights and smashed windows, it just comes with the territory.

"That is just my job, it's part of the job," said Payton-Brown. "We have extensive training in passenger safety and that was just part of the training."