Tulare County bus driver honored for saving students from burning bus

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Tulare County Board of Supervisors celebrated a bus driver who went above and beyond the call of duty.

She helped pull students to safety when her bus caught fire last month.

Karen Pace says she had just dropped a group of students off in Visalia when she saw her bus was shooting out heavy smoke.

She pulled the bus over immediately and started evacuating students.

As the bus began to fill with thick black smoke, she stayed inside searching for students.

County leaders honored Pace on Tuesday.

Pace has worked as a bus driver for Central Valley Christian for several years.

But before that, she was a dispatcher for the Tulare County Sheriff's Department.

She says that experience helped her stay calm under pressure.