PARIS – A SAD 17 bus driver kept students from getting burned after flames erupted under the dashboard as they were about to board the bus late Wednesday afternoon at the high school.

“She did exactly what we trained (bus drivers) to do: kids first,” Superintendent Mark Eastman said as he kept vigil outside the PACE ambulance where driver Linda Berry of Oxford was being evaluated for smoke inhalation. She escaped the bus seconds before it burst into flames at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

Paris Fire Chief Brad Frost said it appeared the fire was sparked by an electrical program in the engine compartment of the 2007 bus. No damage estimate was available Wednesday night.

Berry was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital for evaluation, Frost said. A nursing supervisor said Wednesday night that Berry was treated and released.

Eastman said as Berry pulled the bus up to the loop near the cafeteria entrance, she smelled smoke and pulled out the fire extinguisher to try to put out a small fire in the front of the bus.

The fire was on the driver’s side of Bus 16, Frost said. Although it appeared the fire was out, Eastman said Berry told him the fire erupted again. She quickly got out of the bus and got students and about half a dozen other buses in the bus loop out of the way.

The school, which had an undetermined number of students and teachers in it, was also evacuated as flames burst through the bus windows only 30 or so feet from two propane tanks next to the school kitchen.

Firefighters climbed onto the roof of the kitchen to hose it down.

Heavy black smoke was seen high over the school, causing motorists on Route 26 and other downtown areas to come to watch.

“We smelled smoke,” said French teacher Andrea Asken Dunn, who was in her second-floor classroom in the B wing on the Fair Street side of the school with her daughter, Sorrel Dunn, a 15-year-old sophomore.

“It smelled like (burning) plastic,” said Sorrel Dunn, who left the building.

It was unclear exactly how many of the approximately 1,100 students from eight area towns and about 175 staff members and others were in the building.

Sorrel Dunn said cheerleaders were practicing in the gym, which is next to the bus loop, and the boys’ soccer team was in the library near the center of the building. Football players were practicing in the field and some teachers and students were scattered throughout the building. Teacher Nancy Marcotte said many teachers were in the building late Wednesday afternoon for leadership meetings.

The bus was towed to the bus garage where investigators will examine it more thoroughly in the next few days, Frost said.