They'd gone barely 300 yards on Chapel Road in Fardale when the boy -- the driver's first pickup -- said he smelled something, so they quickly got off, the fifth-grader's mom said.
Police officers were there instantly and members of Mahwah Fire Co. 4 quickly doused the Durham Bus Company engine fire, said the mom, who went to the scene and picked her son up.
The bus was totaled, Police Chief James Batelli said, adding that his detectives were investigating the cause.
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ALSO SEE: Nothing rattles 11-year-old Rocco Arcess of Mahwah – the kid’s an award-winning downhill racer. So when the school bus he’d just gotten on caught fire Tuesday morning, he calmly told the driver he’d better pull over.
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