On Monday afternoon, Maryland residents were troubled to see that a yellow school bus on their street was absolutely engulfed in flames, but as neighbors rushed to the scene, they were relieved upon seeing that the children had all made it safely off the bus.
The miraculous rescue was down to the heroic actions of the bus driver, Reneita Smith, who sprang into action to get the children to safety.
“I opened my door, took off my seat belt, and I got my babies off that bus,” she said, later adding, “I ran back onto the bus to make sure that every seat was clear.”
All 20 of her students, from Glenarden Woods Elementary School in Prince George’s County, made it to the street as neighbors rushed to put out the flames.
“This fire was going too fast. I had a little extinguisher,” said Lucy Kilin. “It was too late. I couldn’t do anything.”
Smith said that she is protective of the children who ride her bus, as a mother of a 4-year-old child herself.
“As I’m driving that bus, they’re my babies,” she said. “I’m their mom until I drop them off to their biological moms.”
“I have people calling me a hero, and I say that I’m just a mom.”