Members of New Jersey high school track team escape burning bus

Coaches and 32 members of the Shabazz High School girls and boys track team were already on board  school bus Sunday morning in Newark, N.J. waiting to leave for the Essex County Relays in Jersey City when the bus caught fire.

Everyone managed to get off the bus unharmed before it became engulfed in flames.

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"The athletes in the back of the bus saw the smoke first and started yelling for everyone to get off,'' Shabazz assistant coach Justin Gassmann told NJ.com. "I've seen smoke from a bus before from lots of exhaust, but this was very different. I'm just glad no one got hurt.''

A handful of members of the team left uniforms and equipment on the bus and those items were destroyed. The team still managed to make it to the meet approximately 15 minutes late and meet organizers allowed everyone to compete, despite some student-athletes not having uniforms.

One member of the team, Elijah Outen, credited coach Damon Harrison for noticing smoke was from a fire on not exhaust and running to the bus to tell everyone to get off. Outen said it was a close call and people could easily have been hurt or worse without Harrison's quick thinking.

"I'd say about 30 seconds after I got off the bus, I looked back and I saw the whole bus burst into flames,'' said Outen told NJ.com.

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[Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo