A College Park, Maryland, school bus driver had been hailed for her heroic actions after the bus she was driving caught fire on Monday.

The fire was reported at about 4:45 PM on  Monday along the 9600 block of 51st Avenue in College Park. According to Mark Brady, the public information officer for Prince George’s County, MD Fire and EMS Department.

Twenty children from Glenarden Woods Elementary School were on the bus when the blaze started. The fire originated near one of the rear wheels, initially.

The driver, identified by a parent as Reneita Smith, safely got each and every student off and away from danger. She “was able to remain calm throughout the ordeal” as the vehicle was evacuated, according to Brady.

Fazlul Kabir posted on Facebook , “A big THANK YOU to our school bus driver Reneita Smith who  saved 20 elementary school kids from a bus fire that completely destroyed the bus. Reneita [not only] 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.”

Kabir recalled Smith saying as the bus burned, “I am a mom of two kids. It’s my job to save them.”

No one inside the bus was reported injured. According to Brady most of the kids were picked up from the scene by their parents.

Video captured by a Branchville Volunteer Fire Company firefighter’s dashboard camera showed that smoke and flames had been coming from the empty school bus.

By Prakriti Neogi