Wednesday, December 11, 2024

41 Hampton U. student athletes escape bus before explosion

Dozens of athletes from Hampton University were able to evacuate a charter bus before it exploded in North Carolina.

According to a statement from Wilson County Emergency Management, 41 track and field athletes from Hampton University were traveling home on Saturday night from a meet at the University of South Carolina when the bus went up in flames.

The statement said the bus driver “did an excellent job” evacuating the students before the bus exploded. Wilson County Emergency Management Director Gordon Deno said it took about 30 minutes to extinguish the fire, as around 100 gallons of diesel fuel burned.

The students were taken to a high school, where they waited for a new bus.

University spokesman Jim Heath says the team reached home early Sunday.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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