College Counselor Is First Victim Identified In Fiery Bus Crash In California

Remains of a tour bus that was struck by a FedEx truck on Interstate 5 in Orland, Calif., Friday, April 11, 2014. (AP)

Arthur Arzola, a 26-year-old college counselor, was the first victim of Thursday’s fiery crash in California publicly identified by authorities.

Arzola is one ten victims who died after a fiery crash involving a FedEx delivery truck and a charter bus carrying high school students in Northern California, according to CBS.

Authorities say the dead victims included five students, two drivers and two others.

The accident occurred near Orland, a small city about 90 minutes north of Sacramento.

Arzola was a counselor at Humboldt State University, where the students were headed for a tour of the campus. Officials say the FedEx truck hit a car and collided head-on with one of three charter buses headed to Humboldt to tour the campus. Both vehicles burst into flames as students kicked open windows to escape the fire.

“Everything completely burned,” one official said. “Fire got here pretty quick, but by the time they got here, it was fully engulfed.”

Nine people died at the scene and a tenth succumbed to their injuries overnight in the burn center at UC Davis Medical Center.

I just heard this loud boom," Steven Clavijo, 18, a student who was on the bus, said, according to published reports. "We knew we were in major trouble."

KNBC reported that a student who was sitting in the back of the bus saw the front of it erupt in flames. He said that passengers seated in the back escaped through a window that someone had smashed open.

"Everybody screaming and, like, I was panicking so I just started banging the window to the right," Jonathan Gutierrez, a student, said to KNBC. "Everybody, like three people were trying to fit through the window at one time.”

Meanwhile, a Southern California family is desperately trying to locate one of two identical twins who was on the bus involved in the accident.

Miguel Serrato says his sister 17-year-old Marisa Serrato has been missing since Thursday evening after the tractor-trailer slammed into the bus, which carried 44 high school students.

The other twin, Marisol Serrato, was on a different bus that wasn't involved in the crash and made it safely to the school Friday.

Marisol was accepted to the school, while Marisa was waitlisted. The two Norte Vista High School seniors decided to check out the campus.

The 23-year-old Miguel Serrato says the family hasn't slept since learning about the crash on the news at their father's 65th birthday celebration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report