CARSON CITY, Mich. — Sunday night marked a scary situation for the Carson City-Crystal Marching Eagles when their bus caught on fire while traveling through Florida.
“She was screaming, 'Mommy, the bus is on fire! Our bus is on fire! Our bus is on fire!'" Sarah Lowery recalled from a Sunday night phone call with her daughter. "She said, 'I'm okay. Everybody is safe. Everybody is out, but I can't find Grandpa.'"
Sarah told FOX 17 Tuesday that her father was a chaperone on his granddaughter's band trip to perform at Disney World and Universal Studios.
Lowery says her dad had grabbed a fire extinguisher to help put out the fire.
"I was scared because the seat that is the burnt seat is where my daughter was sitting. She sent me a thing that that seat that was totally burnt is where she was sitting — right there by the window above the wheel," she added.
Thankfully, no one out of the more than 50 students, staff and chaperones got hurt; however, flames damaged and destroyed everything that had been left on the bus.
"Everything's pretty much gone, yeah, and that's hard because my daughter, even yesterday, she packed her whole suitcase — all of her clothes, pretty much that she owns, are in there," Lowery said.
READ MORE: Bus filled with West Michigan students catches fire in Florida
Superintendent John Sattler says Educational Tours, the group that chartered the bus, provided money for the students, staff and chaperones to get new clothes to wear for the rest of the trip.
"The kids were given $100 each [Monday] for a Walmart shopping spree, and they bought the necessary clothes they needed to get through the day," Sattler explained.
However, the Marching Eagles had their instruments destroyed in the fire, as well, so they could not perform on the trip as planned.
Plus, they have a concert scheduled for when they get home. Thankfully, a local business stepped in with a promise to help.
"Meyer Music stepping up and giving our kids the equipment they need to participate with no hiccup," Sattler explained. "Their stuff was in cases — it's been in a fire, it's probably got water damage — we don't know, but we do know that they can't use their equipment. So, what did Meyer Music do? They reached out to our band director and said, 'We got your back for Thursday night.'"
"The way the community is coming together for stuff like this, it's just amazing. It really is," Lowery added.
The fire also damaged school laptops the students brought so that they could do homework while on the trip.
If you're interested in donating to the Carson City-Crystal Marching Eagles, Sattler says the high school office is accepting checks.
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