The evacuation of the US Gulf Coast turned deadly on Friday when a bus carrying elderly evacuees fleeing Hurricane Rita along a major escape route burst into flames and killed an estimated 24 people on board, officials said.
The bus caught fire in the early morning darkness on Interstate 45 south of Dallas and closed the highway. Its charred hulk rested along the highway with a long string traffic stuck behind it.
The bus was believed to have been carrying elderly and infirm evacuees from South Texas, Dallas County Sheriff's Dept. Sgt. Don Peritz said in a round of media appearances. About 15 people were removed from the vehicle before it became engulfed in flames and an estimated 24 people did not make it off.
"We believe the explosions were related to a series of oxygen canisters that were on board," Peritz said.
The fire may have been caused by sparks, originated by a brake failure, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller told CNN. "It's obviously a horrific event. The whole city is very upset about this. We've handled two waves of evacuees now. We've never had anything this horrible happen, so it's really a tragedy," she said.
The accident turned a historic evacuation already delayed by endless traffic jams into a nightmare, as the Category 4 hurricane barrelled toward the heart of the US oil industry with winds near 135 mph and Texas officials predicted catastrophic destruction.
Rita was expected to make landfall early on Saturday near the Texas and Louisiana border.
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