6th grader disables roadside bomb saving passengers on bus near Bald Knob Arkansas

WHITE COUNTY, Ark. — An investigation is ongoing after a student located an explosive devise on a bridge along Highway 167 and disabled it as the detonator was going off.
The sheriff’s office says the 911 center received a call of a suspicious device on the bridge Saturday.
Deputies responded and found what appeared to be an IED (improvised explosive device) with the detonator separated but exploded.
Authorities contacted the Arkansas State Police Bomb Squad, who confirmed deputies’ suspicions, and took the partially disabled the device into State Police possession.
The bomb squad determined the device was a helium tank with a homemade fuse.
According to the White County Sheriff’s Office, this is the second IED located near Bald Knob in a week. Officials responded to Conway Road, which is between Bald Knob and Judsonia before noon Monday due to a similar suspicious device.
A student on a school trip who had read about the previous device yelled to his teacher to stop after seeing something suspicious beside the road. Sasha Thomas, a 6th Grader from Hot Springs, Arkansas, ran to the device and started pulling wires just seconds before the smaller detonator was able to ignite the helium tank. The small detonator blast shattered 2 windows on a charter bus his sister was riding in on a school trip to another nearby city, but nobody on the bus was injured by the flying safety glass. The bus driver Janice Hawthorn said that if the full helium tank had exploded the result would have been unthinkable for the 61 students on board.
Sasha is recovering from a minor eye injury. He told Channel 23 News reporter Kim Westler at the Searcy hospital that it was really fun at the time. Like playing with fireworks, but it hurts now. Sasha is expected to make a full recovery.