A mother and a school bus driver worked together to save 22 children from a bus that caught fire in Bethel, Minnesota.
God puts us in the right place at the right time. Sometimes we become the answer to someone’s prayer without even knowing it.
Thorp walked out of her home to pick up her 6-year-old daughter from the school bus. The moment she stepped outside, she saw flames shooting up above the front tire. Her heart jumped. She immediately yelled “Fire!” to warn the bus driver, Rick Gratton.
What happened next moved fast. Thorp and Gratton worked together to get all 22 children off the bus. The children ran off the bus and gathered on Thorp’s porch. Her Ring doorbell camera captured everything. Behind them, smoke grew thicker and darker.
“I just wanted to get them off as quickly as we can because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Thorp said. She didn’t know if the bus would explode right then and there.
The children were scared. Many of them cried. Some worried about their backpacks and lunch boxes still on the bus. Thorp and other adults moved the children farther down the street, away from the danger.
Firefighters and emergency workers arrived and began fighting the flames.
The fire spread fast. Within 15 minutes of when Thorp first spotted that small flame, the entire front of the bus was burning. Black smoke poured out. Then both front tires exploded with loud blasts that scared everyone even more.
The heat from the fire was so strong it melted parts of the road in front of Thorp’s house.
Thorp thought about what could have happened if she hadn’t seen those flames. “I don’t know what would have happened. Because a lot of little ones sit up front and that’s where it all started, was right up front,” she said.
The community came together after the incident. St. Francis Area Schools recognized Thorp and Gratton for their quick thinking and brave actions.
Parents and school leaders gave them thank-you baskets filled with goodies. When Thorp talks about what happened, the emotions keep coming back.
“A lot of emotions just keep coming up the more you talk about it, and realize how amazing this community is,” Thorp shared. “It was scary, but I think I had so much adrenaline going I was just worried about getting everyone off.”
In the end, some backpacks, lunch boxes, and one school bus were lost in the fire. But every single child went home safe that day. Parents along that street know things could have been so much worse.
WATCH: Minnesota Mom’s Quick Action Saves Entire Busload of Kids from Fire
