HEMET: Three HUSD bus drivers honored for saving 26 students from bus fire

HEMET – Three Hemet Unified School District bus drivers were recently honored by the School District for their actions during a fire-related emergency when the engine and engine compartment of a HUSD bus caught fire. (Click link to view original story)

Sysonna Allen, Cristina Dever, and Gabriel Figueroa, all drivers for HUSD’s Transportation Department, received the School District’s Good Apple Award during a ceremony at the Governing Board meeting Tuesday, Dec. 6.

City of Hemet’s Fire Chief Scott Brown, seen pictured with each of the award recipients, was also in attendance to honor Allen, Dever, and Figueroa.

During the meeting, the three bus drivers were hailed for their heroic actions during the fiery incident that happened Tuesday, Oct. 18. (View gallery of images from the fire below)

Thanks to the calm and professional actions of the three drivers, 26 students from Rancho Viejo Middle School in Hemet were safely evacuated from the bus as the fire raged. No students were injured during the incident and all the students made it to school safely.

During the board meeting Deputy Superintendent, Dr. LaFaye Platter, presented the good Apple awards to the three bus drivers involved, reading the reasoning for their recognition from commendations written by Michael Fogerty, Director of Transportation for HUSD.

While praising Allen for her actions, Platter explained that the morning of the fiery incident, Allen was transporting her students to Rancho Viejo Middle School.

Her bus was being followed by Dever’s and Figueroa’s buses.

As the three buses were turning off of Florida Avenue (Highway 74) onto N. Cawston Avenue, Allen looked in her rear view mirror and spotted flames pouring out from underneath Dever’s bus.

Allen immediately tried to contact Dever using the buses two-way radio. When that failed, Allen activated all her emergency lights while waving her arm out the window and slowing down to get Dever’s attention, Platter explained.

Once the buses were safely pulled over to the side of the road, “Allen calmly and professionally communicated with her students to remain on her own bus while she attended to the other buses emergency,” Fogerty wrote.

With her own students on Allen’s bus a safe distance from the bus that was on fire, she immediately sprung into action. Without hesitation, Allen braved the flames and assisted with evacuating the students from Dever’s bus.

During this quickly escalating emergency, “Allen successfully utilized her experience and training to effectively ensure the safety of all the students during this emergency and should be highly commended for her quick action and thinking,” Fogerty wrote.

Platter also praised Dever for her quick and decisive actions during the emergency.

Dever was transporting her 26 students to Rancho Viejo Middle School when the engine and engine compartment of her bus caught on fire, according to Platter.

After Allen got Dever’s attention and let her know her bus was on fire, Dever “calmly pulled the bus to the side of the road and instructed her students to exit the bus,” Fogerty explained in a written commendation.

Students – who were unaware their bus was even on fire – left the bus one-by-one, Alexandra Cass, HUSD’s Public Information Officer explained the day of the fiery incident.

“During this emergency evacuation, Dever’s training was evident by her counting out loud as each student safely exited the bus, ensuring all students were accounted for,” according to Fogerty. “Once the students were safely out of the bus, Dever directed the students away from the bus towards Allen’s bus, ensuring that there were no remaining students on the bus.”

“Dever’s main focus was to safely get all 26 students off the bus and at a safe distance from the burning vehicle,” Cass explained after the incident. “As students exited, Dever counted each student to ensure they were all accounted for.”

San Bernardino County Sheriff Deputy Jeff Gelinas, who was off-duty but witnessed the emergency unfolding, risked his own life when he and Dever re-entered the smoke filled bus to check and ensure no children had been left behind on the burning bus.

After Dever knew that all her students were safe, she grabbed a fire extinguisher from her bus and tried to extinguish the fire raging from the engine compartment at the back of the bus.

“As a bus driver, when you start out with your morning route, you never expect or know what the events of your day will encompass,” Fogerty explained.

“On this day, it was particularly somber as it was the processional for the fallen police officers in Palm Springs, one of whom was a Hemet native.”

Although the streets of Hemet were lined with the first responders for the processional, Dever did not allow herself to be distracted from the emergency threatening the students she was transporting.

“Dever professionally and without hesitation utilized her experience and training skills acquired to execute an emergency evacuation and ensure the safety of all her students. She should be commended for an excellent job done,” Fogerty wrote.

“I’m glad everyone was okay, and Sysonna was so perceptive,” Dever said after the incident. Dever said that although it was a scary situation, her instincts took over. Dever explained that subconsciously she was able to perform the actions she is trained on every year, without thinking at the time of the imminent danger she and the students were in.

Platter also praised Figueroa for his actions during the potentially deadly crisis.

Figueroa had been driving his bus behind Allen and Dever’s buses when the crisis began.

When Figueroa realized that Dever’s bus was on fire he immediately pulled over to the side of the road to assist with the evacuation of the 26 children from Dever’s bus.

Without hesitation, Figueroa ignored the flames raging from the back of Dever’s bus and began to gather Dever’s students after they had been evacuated from the bus and were standing on the sidewalk.

Figueroa directed the endangered students to get onto his bus, putting them in a safer area away from the raging fire at the back of Dever’s bus.

After emergency personnel arrived, Figueroa transported Dever’s students away from the danger to their school.

“It should be noted that this is not the first time Figueroa has been instrumental in an emergency situation,” Fogerty wrote.

Figueroa was the bus driver involved in a 2015 accident while transporting 25 students who were expected to act as role player/victims in the School District’s “Every 15 Minute” program presented by the Hemet Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Hemet Fire Department and other public agencies.

“In that morning incident a car pulled out in front of him on Highway 74,” Fogerty recalled. “Figueroa made the instant decision to strike the car in front of him instead of taking evasive action and putting eastbound motorists at risk.”

“Figueroa should be commended for his calm and professional actions,” Fogerty explained.

As the crisis unfolded, a fire engine less than a block up the street was pulling out of Hemet Fire Station #3 to report to an unrelated medical aid call.

As the fire engine was leaving the station, the firefighters saw flames and smoke coming out of the back of the bus. The Fire Department contacted AMR medics to assist in the emergency and immediately responded to the bus fire.

Firefighters were able to safely extinguish the flames within minutes.

Largely due to the quick, decisive, and heroic actions of Allen, Dever, and Figueroa, no children were injured during the emergency.

Click any image to open full-size sequential gallery of emergency

All photos courtesy of Gil Hernandez

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including the Robert Presley Detention Center, the Southwest Station in Temecula, the Hemet Station, and the Lake Elsinore Station, along with many other locations.