'It's My Job To Save Them:' School Bus Driver Pulls 20 Children From Burning Vehicle

September 14, 2016

Meet Reneita Smith, the Maryland bus driver who saved every child from her bus that caught fire on Monday.

bus driver saves kids fire

Twenty children from Glenarden Woods Elementary School in College Park were on the bus when the blaze started, apparently originating near one of the rear wheels, Mark Brady, the public information officer for Prince George's County, MD Fire and EMS Department, said.

Smith safely got each and every student off and away from danger.

bus driver saves kids from fire

"A big THANK YOU to our school bus driver Reneita Smith who just saved 20 elementary school kids from a bus fire that completely destroyed the bus," Fazlul Kabir posted on Facebook. "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."

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

No one on the bus was injured. 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 smoke and flames coming from the empty school bus.