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CHARLOTTE – A state transportation official told News 14 Carolina the fire on Bus No. 295 started in an electrical compartment just left of the driver's seat.  
 
It happened Wednesday afternoon in south Charlotte. All six students on board and the bus driver were able to make it out safely. The dramatic video of the bus fire made international news.

"A school bus fire is a fairly rare event. It's not even something we track," said Derek Graham, section chief of transportation for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Graham sent out a note to all school transportation directors Friday alerting them about the fire and to remind them to continue checking some potential trouble spots on each bus.

Graham said he doesn't believe this latest fire is related to other fires on school buses the past few years.

"That's not a location of where we've seen fires in recent memory," said Graham.

CMS Bus No. 295 was a Freightliner FS-65. In response, Freightliner wrote:

The school bus involved is a unit from the Charlotte Mecklenburg school district in Charlotte, NC; the incident occurred on Feb. 8 at 1200 Bearmore Drive in southeast Charlotte. The vehicle involved was a Freightliner FS-65 with a Thomas Built Buses conventional body. There were no injuries related to the incident.  

Thomas Built Buses designs and manufactures school buses with numerous, proven safety features, and views the safety of school bus passengers and drivers as its highest priority. Company officials have contacted the Charlotte Mecklenburg school district and are working closely with the district  to determine the cause of the incident. Further information will not be available until the conclusion of the investigation.

An official with Freightliner will be in Charlotte Monday taking a closer look at that bus.
CMS officials released Bus No. 295's inspection report Friday.

The Jan. 31 report shows the bus passed inspection.