Reach: Ford - Stories of Strength 2020_October 2020
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It started out as an ordinary day. Reneita Smith picked up her bus full of elementary school students this week  – all 20 of them as she made her rounds in the Maryland suburb of College Park. But it soon turned frightening. Smith’s bus caught on fire, potentially trapping the kids inside as the bus was quickly consumed in flames. But Smith was not going to let a tragedy happen on her watch.

People.com reports:

“I got my babies off that bus,” Reneita Smith told News4.

Smith got each child safely off the bus and still went back onto the burning vehicle to make sure everyone was off.

“I ran back onto the bus to make sure that every seat was clear,” she said about the incident that was reported at 4:45 p.m.

According to the news outlet, neighbor Lucy Kilin ran outside, but there was little she could do.

“This fire was going too fast. I had a little extinguisher,” she said. “It was too late. I couldn’t do anything.”

Bystander Fazlul Kabir posted a picture of the bus and spoke to Smith about her heroic actions.

“I am a mom of two kids. It’s my job to save them” Smith told him, according to his Facebook post.

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