Los Angeles, CA–Reel Big Fish are unharmed after narrowly escaping from their tour bus after it caught fire while parked at a truckstop, approximately 20 miles from Columbia, MO early Saturday morning.
The six-piece band plus three crew members were sleeping when their bus caught fire at a Kingdom City, Missouri truck stop. The band’s driver, Ron Millholland, ran in and woke them up after he detected smoke coming from the bus while returning from breakfast.
Trumpet player Tyler Jones told the Associated Press that Milholland saved his life, “He was nice enough to come in and say, `Get off the bus, or you will all die.’” Within moments of the band and crew exiting, the entire bus was engulfed in flames. The blaze took 30 minutes to extinguish. The cause is believed to have been a faulty generator.

As luck would have it, the band’s gear was loaded onto a separate trailer so they were able to make it to their show at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO that evening.