Harrowing video captured the moment a hero bus driver saved nine children seconds before their school bus exploded in flames.
Kia Rousseve, 28, was preparing to make her fifth stop when she noticed the vehicle starting to lose power.
“The bus started going crazy, shaking and going very, very slowly,” the hero told Good Morning America.
A mother herself, said she credits her maternal instinct for kicking in around 7 a.m. on March 13.
“I put on my mother’s hood,” Rousseve said. “I have a child so I thought of them as if they were my own child.”
When she stopped the bus, a passerby ran towards the bus to inform Rousseve that flames were coming from below. She quickly got the children off the bus and moments later it caught fire, destroying the vehicle.
New Orleans school bus driver Kia Rousseve saved nine children and herself after the bus she was driving lost power and caught fire.
After taking the children away, the bus caught fire and the moment was filmed.
A mother herself, said she credits her maternal instinct for taking action that day. “I put on my mother’s hood,” Rousseve said. “I have a child so I thought of them as if they were my own child”
“We could have lost our lives, that’s what I was thinking,” Rousseve said.
“Every time I look at the photo it’s like wow, my seat was the first thing to catch fire.”
Rousseve quickly got the K-8 students off the bus moments before it spontaneously caught fire.
“I just had to stay calm for the kids because they were crying and running down the street and I had to corral them.”
After leading the children away from what could have been a deadly scene, she returned to check that no one else was inside the vehicle.
Minutes after getting the children off the bus, the vehicle was completely engulfed in flames.
A bus driver for three years, Rousseve said she believed a faulty alternator was to blame for the explosion.
“Every time I look at the photo it’s wow, my seat was the first thing to catch fire,” the hero said
When she stopped the bus, a passerby ran towards the bus to inform Rousseve that the flames were coming from below.
She was making her fifth stop around 7 a.m. on March 13 when the scary moment started happening.
Rousseve quickly got the K-8 students off the bus moments before it spontaneously caught fire.
A bus driver for three years, Rousseve said she believed a faulty alternator was to blame for the explosion.
Rousseve’s employer, Community Academies of New Orleans, praised her for her actions, calling her courage “courage on wheels.”
The bus driver said she was still shaken by the incident and was taking time to recover.
Rousseve’s employer, Community Academies of New Orleans, praised her for her actions, calling her courage “courage on wheels.”
“I was just happy to be a hero to the kids and be a hero to myself, and get them off the bus really quickly.”
The bus driver told Good Morning America that she was still shaken by the incident and was taking time to recover. She also shared her story with many other media outlets.
“I feel good about saving other children’s lives and saving my own,” she said in a previous interview.