OAKLAND, Iowa (AP) - The Latest on a fatal school bus fire in western Iowa (all times local):
5:30 p.m.
Family and friends are remembering the 16-year-old girl and 74-year-old school bus driver who died in a fire in western Iowa.
Eighteen-year-old Bailey Rose told the Omaha World-Herald she took a weightlifting class with Megan Klindt last year and remembers her caring and energetic nature.
Klindt and Donnie Hendricks died Tuesday morning after fire engulfed their bus.
Riverside Community Schools Superintendent Timothy Mitchell says the district suffered a tragic loss in the fire.
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3:30 p.m.
Authorities have identified the student and bus driver who died after a school bus caught fire in western Iowa.
The fire happened around 7 a.m. Tuesday at a farm southeast of Oakland, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Omaha, Nebraska.
The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says the bus driver was 74-year-old Donnie Hendricks of Carson, Iowa. The student who died was 16-year-old Megan Klindt.
The bus had just picked up Klindt at the farm before it backed across the road and into a ditch. Investigators say the bus was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived.
Klindt and Hendricks were the only people on the bus at the time of the fire.
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11:45 a.m.
A western Iowa school district says grief counselors are available to help students and staff cope following a school bus fire that killed a student and the bus driver.
Investigators say no one else was on the bus when the fire erupted around 7 a.m. Tuesday southeast of Oakland, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Omaha, Nebraska.
The Riverside Community School District has about 700 students from the area. The district held classes Tuesday but also made counselors available.
The district has postponed basketball games scheduled for Tuesday evening.
Investigators say the bus caught fire after it backed out of a farm driveway and into a ditch across the road. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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10:15 a.m.
Authorities say a fire aboard an Iowa school bus has killed a student and the bus driver.
Investigators say no one else was on the bus when the fire erupted around 7 a.m. Tuesday southeast of Oakland, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Omaha, Nebraska.
Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Lt. Rob Ambrose says the remains of the driver and a student were found after the fire was extinguished. The ages and names of the victims weren’t immediately released.
Ambrose says no one else was on the bus at the time.
The bus caught fire after it backed out of a farm driveway and into a ditch across the road. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The bus was from the Riverside Community School District.
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9:10 a.m.
Authorities say two people have died in a school bus fire in western Iowa.
Investigators say there may have been as many as 20 students on the bus when the fire erupted around 7 a.m. Tuesday. The bus was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.
The ages and identities of the victims weren’t immediately released.
The bus was from the Riverside Community School District. It caught fire southeast of Oakland, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Omaha, Nebraska.
Pottawattamie County Chief Deputy Sheriff John Reynolds tells the Omaha World Herald the remains of two people were found after the fire was extinguished.
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