The charter bus had come to rest along the shoulder of the highway.
It was November 14, 2023, in Etna, Ohio. The bus was carrying 52 students and three faculty members to a band event when a tractor-trailer caused a multi-vehicle accident. The crash struck the rear of the bus.
Then the fire started.
Flames broke out at the tractor-trailer and another vehicle before spreading to the rear of the bus. Most of the passengers were able to get out.
Brynn Goedel was not.
She was 16 years old and had been standing in the aisle, trying to get to the bathroom, when the impact came. The crash threw her about 15 feet and left her severely injured and unable to move.
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Joshua Chieka was driving nearby.
Chieka was 37 years old and worked as a truck driver. He saw flames coming from the bus, stopped, and ran toward it.
At the bus door, he learned from chaperones that students might still be inside.
So he entered.
He climbed the open bus steps and moved into the smoke.
The interior was filled from floor to ceiling. Visibility was almost gone. Chieka crouched low and moved about 30 feet toward the rear of the bus, reaching his hands out as he went.
He was searching by touch.
Then his hands brushed Brynn.
Chieka grasped her and began pulling her backward toward the front of the bus. He stayed low, dragging her through the smoke until they reached the front, where chaperones helped move her onto the highway shoulder.
Emergency personnel eventually reached her and transported her to a nearby hospital.
Brynn’s injuries were severe. She suffered multiple pelvic fractures, rib fractures, a broken clavicle, a lacerated bladder, small burns to both sides of her face, a second-degree burn on her left upper arm, and a concussion. She stayed in the hospital for 43 days and underwent four surgeries.
She recovered.
Three other students on the bus died.
Chieka inhaled smoke and suffered a small burn to his right forearm. He received medical treatment at a nearby hospital and recovered.
The story is not clean. A rescue happened, and loss still happened in the same event.
That is part of the record.
Chieka did not save everyone on the bus. He found one student who could not move and brought her out through smoke thick enough to erase the aisle in front of him.
The bus was burning.
He went in anyway.
What He Did And Why It Is Worth Noticing
Joshua Chieka stopped after seeing flames coming from a charter bus, entered through the open bus door, moved about 30 feet through floor-to-ceiling smoke, found Brynn Goedel by touch, and dragged her out with help from chaperones.
That is what he did.
It is worth noticing because he entered after others had escaped, when the remaining danger was not obvious from outside. Inside, visibility was gone, the rear of the bus was burning, and Brynn could not move herself.
He did not have a clear view of who was still there.
He searched anyway.
A bus was burning after a highway crash. One injured student remained inside. Chieka crawled through the smoke until he found her.
That changed what happened next.
If you knew people might still be inside a burning bus but could not see through the smoke, would you go in by touch?