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FontDALLAS - To Eileen Kisluk, he's the center of her world. So the Houston lawyer was taking no chances with her 78-year-old father's life as Hurricane Rita approached.
She made sure the Bellaire nursing home Brighton Gardens was taking all precautions to safely evacuate her father, Harry Wilson, and dozens of others, on a chartered bus to Dallas on Thursday before the storm.
Fifteen hours later, the bus was a charred hulk on the side of Interstate 45, with 24 bodies inside and investigators seeking the cause of a fire and explosion that tore through the bus in the Dallas suburb of Wilmer.
Thursday morning, Wilson's daughter brought bagels and cream cheese for the group of seniors, half of whom she said couldn't walk and many of whom couldn't communicate well. She waited four hours until several Bellaire firefighters helped carry her father, a large man paralyzed on one side after two strokes, onto the bus.
Kisluk said she had no reason to doubt her father's safety on the bus — it seemed comfortable and was air-conditioned. But a few things bothered her about the white charter: It wasn't the bus with a ramp that was ordered, so firefighters had to load each patient individually. And Kisluk noticed the bus driver didn't speak English, leaving her worried that the passengers would not be able to communicate with him.
On the road, other complications arose with the bus carrying 37 patients, six health care workers and one staffer's relative. Kisluk said her father borrowed a cell phone and called her to say passengers had run out of oxygen and were stopped to get more. Then, after 4 a.m., her father called saying the bus had a flat a couple of hours outside Dallas.
But the next call, around 7 a.m., was one of the most terrifying of her life: Her father had just been thrown from the bus by emergency workers and was lying on the side of I-45 in Wilmer, watching flames engulf the bus and his friends who remained inside.
Her father explained that motorists had begun signaling the bus driver about smoke billowing from the bus and the driver swerved to pull over. Witnesses said other evacuees ran from their cars on the crowded highway to help. Emergency crews rushed into the inferno to save the hysterical passengers who screamed for help.
"The fire department pulled me out, literally, like a newborn baby," Harry Wilson said later Friday, tearfully recounting the moment to reporters before his release from Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. "By risking their own lives, they went on that bus. About one minute later, that bus blew up like a Roman candle."
Officers tried to save all
A sheriff's deputy storming the bus only got to the second step. He pointed his flashlight on the aisle, compelling the residents to "follow the light." But the wall of heat, the thick smoke thrust him back.
"He could hear people calling for help, but he couldn't even see them," said Sgt. Don Peritz, a Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman, who spoke with the deputy at the accident site.
"Frustrated is not a strong enough word. They're devastated they couldn't get people off the bus," Peritz said of the three Dallas County deputies, who, along with a Wilmer police officer, were first on the scene.
The bus exploded when the flames reached a passenger's oxygen tank, Peritz said. The driver and Brighton Gardens staff got out safely.
Twenty-four people died as flames devoured the bus. Their charred remains were found in the middle of the bus. Those in the front were able to escape through the door; those in the back were pulled out through windows smashed by rescuers.
"We know every person on that bus," Kisluk said. "We're going to be going to a lot of funerals next week."
In an unprecedented move, officials decided to load the blackened skeleton of the bus onto a flatbed trailer and transport it to another location in order to clear the highway for Hurricane Rita evacuees.
Jeffrey Barnard, Dallas County medical examiner, said the victims' bodies were so badly burned that his office is awaiting dental records and X-rays that may show medical devices such as hip replacements to identify them.
Several of the injured were taken to area hospitals. Four were released from Baylor University Medical Center. Of the 10 taken to Parkland, three stayed overnight for observation, one because of smoke inhalation and two because of pre-existing medical conditions, said Terry Jones, interim chief nursing officer.
The rest, treated mainly for scrapes and burns, were expected to be released.
"Some of them are shaken, some are very thankful to be alive," Jones said. "They're asking questions about who else made it. They don't know which of their friends made it and who didn't."
Authorities could only speculate on what caused the fire.
"We don't have a cause," Peritz said. "We have witness accounts that indicate they had a problem with the brakes or tires on one side of the vehicle when they saw it. That's all we have."
He said authorities would not have a definitive cause until a formal investigation by the Sheriff's Department, Texas Department of Public Safety and the National Transportation Safety Board is completed.
Bus's registration lapsed
According to state officials and records obtained Friday, the charter bus had a lapsed registration and a history of driver violations. But the carrier, Global Limo Inc., of Pharr, likely was pressed into service because of the emergency evacuations.
A representative of Global Limo did not return a message left by the Houston Chronicle for comment.
"We are trying to sort through what happened. This was part of an effort to prepare for Hurricane Rita ... to get our special-needs people out of harm's way," said Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel.
Siegel said the evacuation of the nursing home was not "mandatory," but that Bellaire officials had "strongly urged" the officials of all nursing homes in Bellaire to evacuate their residents on Thursday.
The 115-bed assisted-living and nursing facility is owned by Virginia-based Sunrise Senior Living.
"Sunrise has been devastated by this tragedy," said Paul Klaassen, chairman and CEO of Sunrise. "We are fully cooperating with authorities investigating this incident to determine its cause."
Kisluk and her mother, Bernice Wilson, mourned the deaths of the patients they had come to care for. They rejoiced at Harry Wilson's survival.
"I guess God was on his side this time," Bernice Wilson said of her husband of 48 years.
They haven't told him that one of his dearest friends at the nursing home, a woman with cancer, didn't make it.
The nursing home was in the process of contacting family members.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Department set up an information line for family members of residents of the nursing home: 800-786-7471.
Chronicle reporters Rosanna Ruiz, James Pinkerton, Anne Marie Kilday, Leigh Hopper and Terri Langford contributed to this report.
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