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A bus transporting the Carson City-Crystal High School Marching Band caught fire after the band visited Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Sunday evening. Everyone aboard the bus was able to escape safely. Clothing, instruments and uniforms were spared from fire, but received damage from water, smoke and heat. — Submitted photo
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Members of the Carson City-Crystal High School Marching Band are hugging each other a little tighter after safely escaping a bus fire 1,200 miles from home Sunday evening.
Currently visiting Orlando, Florida for the band’s three-day trip to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, Band Director Chad Parameter told the Daily News that all 53 people on the trip were able to safely evacuate the bus that transported the students from Michigan to Florida after it caught fire following the band’s visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
“That was the first thing I said to the kids as we watched the bus burn, that I could still talk to all of them — not one person was hurt,” he said. “Our kids did a wonderful job evacuating the bus. We’re just thankful, thankful for the community and the support of our community reaching out, students reaching out, former students reaching out, trying to make sure we are OK.”
A bus transporting the Carson City-Crystal High School Marching Band caught fire after the band visited Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Sunday evening. The rear portion of the bus, pictured, was completely destroyed by the fire. Everyone aboard the bus was able to escape safely. Clothing, instruments and uniforms were spared from fire, but received damage from water, smoke and heat. — Submitted photo
Parmenter said he and his 35 students, joined by 17 chaperones, had left Magic Kingdom Sunday evening after having spent much of the day there and were en route to their hotel in Osceola County when a rear tire on the bus blew.
“We ended up blowing a tire and continued onto a safe place to pull off,” he said. “While we were sitting there, just after the bus had been put into park, another tire blew.”
Parmenter said it was evident something more serious was at issue after the cabin of the bus began filling with smoke.
After evacuating, Parmenter said the rear portion of the bus had become engulfed in flame.
According to Parmenter, first responders from the Osceola County Fire Rescue and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office soon arrived at the scene and extinguished the blaze, resulting in about a third of the bus having been consumed by fire.
As the band had yet to visit its hotel, Parmenter said all instruments, uniforms, clothing and other items were on the bus.
While the fire didn’t reach the storage compartment area of the bus, Parmenter said damage from water, smoke and heat have left he, his students and the chaperones with nothing for the rest of their trip.
“Anything that was inside the bus is, right now, considered a loss,” he said. “We were able to get some cash and some IDs, those kinds of things, out of the inside of the bus, but all of our luggage is severely smoke damaged, all of our clothes. I haven’t opened up the uniform bags, but nothing was burned. Nothing was burned under the bus in the storage compartment. We spent quite a bit of time on the side of the road salvaging what we could, finding IDs, any cash we could find from out of the parts of the overhead compartment that were spared.”
Members of the Carson City-Crystal High School Band pose for a photo near the start of their trip to Orlando, Florida on Sunday. The bus later caught fire after the band visited Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Everyone aboard the bus was able to escape safely. Clothing, instruments and uniforms were spared from fire, but received damage from water, smoke and heat. — Submitted photo
Parmenter said the band’s travel company, Educational Tours, is working in lockstep with the band to allow their trip to continue and to secure new clothing for everyone.
“We have a new bus for today and we’ll have a permanent bus for our trip home,” he said. “We are just working on getting some clothes for the kids.”
While the band’s scheduled performance at 10 a.m. today at Universal Studios, where the students would have marched throughout the amusement park’s campus, was cancelled, he said the students will still be able to enjoy Universal Studios for the next two days before arriving back in Carson City at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
“Our other focus is getting them back to enjoying the next two days, obviously with some schedule amendments,” he said. “Because of our situation, we’re just going to be enjoying the parks and being together. The kids are pretty resilient, especially when they have other kids and the band family to support them. We’re going to do everything we can to salvage and make the trip as wonderful as we can for them, still.”
Parmenter said with 19 students scheduled to perform in the Honors Band in Breckinridge on Thursday, Meyer Music has reached out and will make sure every student has an instrument for that performance.
“From Meyer Music to neighboring band directors and other travel companies from Michigan, people are reaching out, making sure we’re OK and we appreciate that,” he said. “It’s hard work taking care of the kids. That allowed me to do what I needed to do, to work with the fire department, police and travel company last night. I can’t say what we need right at this moment or if we need anything at this time, but we know the community has supported us so much and we really, really appreciate that. Time will tell what we need.”
The band’s next upcoming performances include at the State Michigan State Band and Orchestra Association Festival on either April 24 or 26, which Carson City-Crystal has been invited to after receiving a top Div. I rating at their district festival earlier this month.
Additionally, the band’s annual spring concert at Carson City-Crystal high School will be May 7.
