Dallas

Bus Fires Sparked By Electrical Short, Mechanical Problem

Separate buses caught fire in Frisco and Fort Worth

Raging fires on two North Texas school buses in recent days were sparked by a mechanical malfunction and an electrical short, according to fire investigators.

In Fort Worth on Wednesday, 10 students from Northwest High School were on a bus headed along Interstate 35W when a fire started somewhere near the back tires, witnesses said.

Investigators are still working on the final report but said late Thursday that an “undetermined mechanical malfunction” caused the blaze.

Everyone made it safely off the bus, identified as a 2010 International CE.

A separate blaze on a brand new Frisco school bus Nov. 18 was caused by a short in some electrical wiring, investigators said in a report released Thursday.

That fire erupted on as students with special needs were headed to middle school, and again nobody was injured.

Specifically, investigators said they traced the problem in the Frisco fire to some faulty wiring between a battery and an air conditioning breaker.

An inspection of four other 2015 buses revealed problems with the same wiring, the Frisco fire department said.

The bus was manufactured by Blue Bird Corporation of Fort Valley, Ga. But the air conditioning system with the faulty wiring was installed by a separate Dallas company, the report noted.

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