Four hurt when bus catches fire on I-85 in Rowan County

There is confusion today about who was driving a passenger bus that caught fire on Interstate 85 in Rowan County just after 7 a.m.

Four people were treated for burns and ankle injuries from jumping off of the burning bus, which caught fire on I-85 in Rowan County Tuesday morning.

“We thought the tire blew and then all of a sudden we saw the smoke,” one passenger said. “I mean we weren’t just smoking, we had flame flames.”

“Some people came through the windows of the bus,” a second passenger added.

The incident happened on I-85 southbound at mile marker 79 near Spencer, backing traffic up into Davidson County.

The bus was being operated by Yep Tours of Massachusetts and was heading from New York City to Atlanta, with a stop in Charlotte. Passengers said there was panic when the driver said there was a fire. People were trampling over one another in an attempt to get off the bus, witnesses say.

The bus pulled over on the median because of a flat tire and while they were waiting for another bus, passengers started smelling smoke and seeing flames, WBTV was told. That’s when the chaos happened, passengers say, after the bus driver yelled there was a fire and to get off the bus.

The fire marshal says they can’t find the driver of the bus, saying he left before the fire department arrived. Initially there was a report that the bus driver got on a second Yep bus that stopped at the scene before the fire department arrived, but now troopers say they aren’t sure who was driving the bus and that they are getting conflicting stories from Yep personnel and passengers.

“He (the bus driver) got off and got on another bus,” another passenger said. “H was gone way before the fire department, yeah, way before that.”

Officials are working to determine exactly what started the fire, but say it came from the area where the flat tire was. Another Yep bus picked up the passengers at a nearby McDonald’s and headed to Charlotte.