The lives of twenty Maryland elementary school children are safe thanks to one heroic bus driver. Renita Smith was driving the kids as usual on Monday afternoon when her bus went up in flames.

She went into “Mommy Mode” and rescued the kids one-by-one, even re-entering the bus just to make sure everyone was out.

She told ABC News that after seeing beeping on the dashboard and calling for a backup vehicle:

“I put the mic back down, undid my seatbelt, jumped up, got my babies and got off,”

“Once we got off, neighbors kicked right into ‘Mommy mode,’ as I call it, and helped the kids get to a safe haven. When that was going on, I ran back onto the bus to make sure there was no children on the bus. … By the time I got to the last step on the bus, it just went up in smoke.”

Bus Dash Cam footage shows how thick the smoke got in the blaze. Fire officials released the tape which we have included at the bottom of the article.

She was super humble talking about her rescue saying:

“When I’m driving them, you’re my children until I drop you off to your biological parents. I have to handle each child with care, as a mommy would her own, so that’s what I did,” she said. “That’s what I hope any human being would do for any child.”

Sadly she said she has been having trouble sleeping due to worrying about how much worse it could have been.

A true hero!