James McClendon
syracuse.com
(MCT)
Ithaca, N.Y. — Keith Whitaker had just begun his morning school bus route when he thought he might have seen flames coming from the back of an apartment building.
He was driving about 30 mph when the flicker of light caught his eye near the corner of Cascadilla and North Meadows streets in Ithaca on Jan. 19. It was just before 6 a.m. and no students had boarded the bus yet, he said.
Whitaker, an Ithaca City School District bus driver for the last six years, called his dispatcher to get 911 alerted.
He stopped the bus, jumped out and started banging on the two front doors of the building. After a few seconds of banging on doors and ringing doorbells, people started coming out of the building.
“I knew I had to do what I could to get the building evacuated,” he said.
Next Whitaker grabbed a fire extinguisher from the bus, ran to the back of the building and started spraying the flames, which had grown to be about two feet, he said.
About five minutes after Whitaker reported the fire, firefighters and police officers arrived to take over. The fire had started climbing up the back of the two-story structure, Whitaker said
Everyone got out of the apartment safely and firefighters put out the blaze, according to an Ithaca Police Department news release. No injuries were reported.
An investigation by the New York Office of Fire Prevention and Control has revealed the fire was started intentionally using an accelerant, police said.
Police thanked Whitaker publicly for his quick thinking, which possibly saved the residents of the building from injury or death. Night and early morning fires can turn deadly because people inside are usually asleep.
That quick thinking came second nature to Whitaker. For 22 years he was a volunteer firefighter in Trumansburg, a village in Tompkins County of about 1,600 people.
“我不认为我做什么英雄,”惠特克said. “I was a firefighter. I was just doing what I was trained to do.”
The Newfield resident said driving school buses runs in his family. His grandparents were bus drivers in Ithaca for 20 years, and his oldest son Kevin has driven a school bus for the district for the last three years.
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Police ask anyone who was in the area between 5:45 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 19 with information about the fire to contact the Ithaca Police Investigations Division at 607-272-3245 or through the tip line at 607-330-0000. Tips can also be submitted atwww.cityofithaca.org/ipdtips.
Staff writer James McClendon covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach him at 914-204-2815 orjmcclendon@syracuse.com.
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