Parents waited as utility workers cut power to the power line on top of the school bus.
Photo by Lori Stabile. WARREN - Utility workers work on Chapel Street in West Warren after a tree branch fell and knocked a power line down on a school bus traveling with elementary school students. There were no injuries.Updates a story posted Thursday at 3:29 p.m.
WARREN – A live wire fell down on a school bus carrying approximately 25 elementary school students during a rain storm on Thursday afternoon, but thanks to the quick actions of emergency personnel and National Grid, the problem was fixed quickly and there were no injuries.
“It’s a little scarier when there’s a loaded bus,” Assistant Fire Chief Adam S. Lavoie said at the scene.
The bus, from the Lizak Bus Co., was heading east on Chapel Street in West Warren when a wire, knocked down by a tree branch, landed on top of it, according to Lavoie.
The bus driver made the 911 call from his cell phone at about 3:10 p.m. The road was temporarily blocked so the wire could be removed.
“The students were kept on the bus as a precaution. National Grid got here quickly,” Lavoie said.
Lavoie said overall the children seemed fine, but a few were crying. Parents waited as the utility workers cut the power to the line.
“They were well-behaved,” Lavoie said of the students. “They did exactly what we asked them to do.”
Parents Danielle J. Berry and David M. Kenyon met their son, Landon R. Morris, 11, as he got off the bus. They said they had an idea something was wrong when the bus was late, and then saw a police cruiser go by.
“It was a little heart-pounding . . . a little nerve-wracking,” Berry said.
Kenyon said the police and firefighters had the situation under control, and that some of the students were “smiling through the windows.”
Landon, a fifth-grader, said he wasn’t worried, though he said one little girl was crying because she wanted to go home to do her homework. He said he saw the wire starting to fall.
The tree branch fell between 86 and 76 Chapel St. The incident knocked out power to homes at 86 and 85 Chapel St. Lavoie estimated that the children, who are students at Warren Community Elementary School, were stuck on the bus for approximately 30 minutes.