A Maryland woman has been hailed as a hero after she saved 20 children from a frightening school bus blaze.
Renita Smith, a bus driver from College Park, Maryland, was shuttling 20 students from Glenarden Woods Elementary School on Monday afternoon when a fire started near one of the bus's real wheels, WTVR reports.
That's when Smith sprang into action.
"A big THANK YOU to our school bus driver Renita Smith who just saved 20 elementary school kids from a bus fire," bystander Fazlul Kabir posted on Facebook following the blaze. "Renita took each one of the 20 kids from the bus one by one, but also went into the empty bus again to check if everyone was out, while it was still burning."
He also posted photos of both Smith and the charred (but safely extinguished) bus.
A volunteer firefighter on the scene used a car dashboard camera to capture incredible footage of the burning bus as it released a menacing column of black smoke:
The fire is still under investigation, according to WTVR. Thankfully, though, each and every child was sent home uninjured thanks to Smith's heroism.
"I didn't see other people's children. I saw my children. I'm a mom. I just did what a mom would do," Smith said in an interview with HLN. "I just got my babies off the bus."
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