Hero driver saves all nine children on her school bus after getting them off minutes before it exploded in ball of flames

A New Orleans school bus driver is being hailed as a hero after she forced students, some as young as kindergarteners, out of her vehicle moments before it exploded.

Kia Rousseve, who just started working for the school district in February, said she was making her fifth stop on the morning of March 13 around 7 a.m. when she noticed her bus was losing power in the Central City district of the city.

“I saw the smoke, then a little girl came and told me the bus was on fire underneath. I took them off,” said Rousseve, 28. WVUE. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the driver believes a faulty alternator is to blame.

The heroic driver went on to say that even though she managed to get all of her children out safely and had nothing to do with the fire, she was still drug tested , that she had succeeded.

Rousseve said she helped the children escape through the front door rather than the fire exit.

“I turned off the bus and got off. When I got off, the bus exploded. All I heard was boom, boom, boom. I was like oh my God, the bus exploded,” Rousseve said.

In a separate interview with NOLA.com, Rousseve said: “If I had still been on that bus…I would have blown up with the bus.”

Rousseve, she thought of her own child while saving the children. “I feel good about saving other children’s lives and saving my own,” she said.

Rousseve has been driving buses in New Orleans since 2021.

Following the incident, Rousseve said she had trouble sleeping and was afraid to drive her bus again. “I really don’t sleep. There’s just a lot going on,” she told the website.

“His ability to remain calm in the face of danger, ensuring no child was harmed, is nothing short of heroic.” “It’s a poignant reminder of the crucial role bus drivers play in our children’s lives, which often goes unnoticed until a moment of crisis puts them in the spotlight,” read a shared statement on social media about Rousseve, according to NOLA.com.

According to a study According to the Department of Transportation, bus fires are reported daily in the United States, but few are as explosive as the one endured by Rousseve and her passengers.

In March 2023, a school bus was registered engulfed in flames in the city’s BW Cooper neighborhood. While two months later, a tourist bus in the city also caught fire.