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WILMER, Texas ? (AP) ? A bus carrying elderly evacuees

from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was rocked by explosions

early Friday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing as

many as 24 people, authorities said.

 

??Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus,''

Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman Don Peritz said.

He said he believes 24 people were killed, but that number

could change.

 

The bus, with about 45 people on board, had been traveling

since Thursday. Peritz declined to give details on who the

passengers were except to say they were from a nursing home

in Bellaire, an upscale enclave within Houston.

 

Early indications were that it caught fire because of

mechanical problems, then passengers' oxygen tanks started

exploding, Peritz said. He said the brakes may have been on

fire.

 

The bus was engulfed with flames, causing a lengthy backup

on Interstate 45 already congested with evacuees from the

Gulf Coast. The bus was reduced to a blackened, burned-out

shell with large blue tarps covering many seats, surrounded

by police cars and ambulances.

 

Tina Jones, a nurse from Ennis, was driving behind the bus

when she saw it start to smoke and pull to the side of the

road.

 

??I saw the smoke and then there was an explosions,'' said

Jones, who pulled over and helped treat cuts and bruises. She

said she saw at least six bodies.

 

??I'll probably go home and have a good cry,'' she said.

 

Peritz said the driver survived. ??It's my understanding

he went back on the bus several times to try to evacuate

people,'' he said.

 

Interstate 45 stretches more than 250 miles from Galveston

through Houston to Dallas. The crash site is roughly 17 miles

southeast of downtown Dallas.

 

Gov. Rick Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said traffic on

I-45 would be diverted at Ennis, about 30 miles southeast of

Dallas. She said it was unclear how far the gridlock

extended.

Oh my gosh. That is horrible.

The only solace you can take, and it's not much, is at least they were old. It sucks, but it also happens to be true.

It was reported there were multiple explosions. Apparently many of the elderly were on oxygen bottles that started exploding one after another as the bus burned.

The only solace you can take, and it's not much, is at least they were old. It sucks, but it also happens to be true.

 

good point.

 

and i bet a lot of em were in misery anyway. nursing homes patients aint the healthiest.

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