A bus transporting students at the University of Massachusetts Lowell to a music competition caught fire Sunday afternoon in Westwood, according to officials and published reports.
Westwood firefighters were called to High Street, which is Route 109, in the area of Grove Street around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the fire department union. Crews at the scene found a passenger bus with fire showing.
All 50 college students on board the bus were evacuated, and one was evaluated at the scene for smoke inhalation, the union said.
The bus was carrying students at UMass Lowell on their way to a music competition in Norwood, 7 News Boston reported.
UMass Lowell could not immediately be reached by MassLive Monday morning.
It took firefighters about 30 minutes to get the fire under control.
“Luckily, crews were able to salvage thousands of dollars in band equipment that the college students had stored under the bus — with almost all of it saved,” the union wrote on Facebook.
Students sitting in the back of the bus began to notice smoke out the window and alerted the driver, The Boston Globe reported.
“It was very scary being on the bus when there was fire directly outside the window next to my friends and I,” Jameson Carroll, a 20-year-old student who was on the bus and plays tenor drums in the drumline, told the paper.
A second bus was called to pick up the band, which safely transported the students to the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association competition at Norwood High School, the Globe reported.
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