Bus carrying Penn State students burns

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa., March 11 (UPI) -- A bus carrying Penn State students back to campus after spring break caught fire while traveling on a highway, officials said. No one was injured.

The fire started about 4 p.m. Sunday as the Martz Trailways bus was rolling along Interstate 70 near the Breezewood exit, The Centre Daily Times, State College reported.

Students alerted the driver to the fire, who pulled over immediately, said Caroline Hagerty, a Penn State freshman who was on the bus. When the bus stopped, students grabbed what they could and got off.

"For the people who had their stuff in the overhead compartments, they didn't have time to grab their stuff, and that's where the fire was primarily," she said.

The bus, one of three traveling from the Washington, D.C., area to State College, was engulfed in flames in about 5 minutes, Hagerty said.

The other two buses, which were ahead of the troubled bus at the time of the fire, circled back to pick up the stranded students.