RICE LAKE, Wis. (WTAQ) - A bus driver might have saved the lives of 52 people, by getting them out just minutes before the vehicle went up in flames.

It happened last Friday night, when the Krug Bus Service was taking Medford High School football fans home after a game in Rice Lake. Brian Krug said driver Kevin Sova heard a bang, and then the 8-year-old bus began to lose power.

He stopped near Cornell and found nothing wrong, so he went for another 3 miles before seeing smoke in his rear-view mirror. Sova got everyone off the bus – and a few minutes later, flames from a rear engine was starting to burn much of the vehicle.

The Cornell Fire Department put the blaze out. And the unit was towed to the bus company’s garage. The company and its insurer were trying Monday to find out why the problems occurred.