Alpharetta elementary bus catches fire

An Alpharetta elementary school bus caught fire Friday morning.

News Chopper 2 flew over Cumming Street and Henderson Parkway, where firefighters were working the fire. The bus involved was a vacant bus used by Manning Oaks Elementary School.

The bus driver was parked in a side drive at the school after a prerun. The bus driver was preparing to pick up students, and the bus was running when she stepped off for a moment, authorities said. Neighbors reported hearing an explosion shortly after 7 a.m.

SLIDESHOW: Alpharetta elementary school bus catches fire

The bus driver saw the fire and alerted authorities. Alpharetta police spokesman George Gordon said the cause of the fire still unknown. After firefighters extinguished the flames, the bus was towed away to be examined.

“Thank God [there were] no kids there,” resident Seshu Puranam told Channel 2’s Carol Sbarge.

The fire came the morning after an Atlanta public school bus caught fire in a parking lot on Claire Drive in southwest Atlanta on Thursday. Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Keith Bromery said the cause of that fire was also unknown.